Real Beauty
By Steve Goodier
When a first-time father cuddled his newborn son, he immediately
noticed the baby's ears conspicuously standing out from his head.
He expressed his concern to the nurse that some children might
taunt his child, calling him names like "Dumbo." A doctor
examined the baby and reassured the new dad that his son was
healthy - the ears presented only a minor cosmetic problem.
But the nervous father persisted. He wondered if the child might
suffer psychological effects of ridicule, or if they should
consider plastic surgery.
The nurse assured him that it was really no problem, and he
should just wait to see if the boy grows into his ears.
The father finally felt more optimistic about his child, but now
he worried about his wife's reaction to those large, protruding
ears. She had delivered by cesarean section, and had not yet seen
the child.
"She doesn't take things as easily as I do," he said to the
nurse.
By this time, the new mother was settled in the recovery room and
ready to meet her new baby. The nurse went along with the dad to
lend some support in case this inexperienced mother became upset
about her baby's large ears.
The infant was swaddled in a receiving blanket with his head
covered for the short trip through the chilly air-conditioned
corridor. The baby was placed in his mother's arms, who eased the
blanket back so that she could gaze upon her child for the first
time.
She took one look at her baby's face and looked to her husband
and gasped, "Oh, Honey! Look! He has your ears!"
No problem with Mom. She married those ears...and she loves the
man to whom they are attached.
The poet Khalil Gibran said, "Beauty is not in the face; beauty
is a light in the heart." It's hard to see the ears when you're
looking into the light.
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