rainbow connection

So apt, and so sad :'(

- The price of 2 bad bricks -

Being a monk, I had patience and as much time as I needed. I made sure every single brick was perfect, no matter how long it took. Eventually, I completed my first brick wall and stood back to admire it.

It was only then that I noticed - oh no! - I'd missed 2 bricks...these 2 were inclined at an angle. They looked terrible. They spoiled the whole wall. They ruined it.

I asked the abbot if I could knock the wall down and start over again - or even better, blow it up. I'd made a mess of it and I was very embarrassed.

One day...I was walking with a visitor and he saw the wall. "That's a nice wall", he casually remarked. "Sir", I replied in surprise, "have you left your glasses in your car? Are you visually impaired? Can't you see those 2 bad bricks which spoil the whole wall?"

He said, "Yes, I can see those 2 bad bricks. But I can also see the 998 good bricks as well."

I was stunned. For the first time in over threee months, I could (finally) see other bricks in that wall apart from the 2 mistakes. Above, below, to the left and to the right of the bad bricks were good bricks, perfect bricks. Moreover, the perfect bricks were many, many more than the 2 bad bricks.

Before, my eyes would focus exclusively on my 2 mistakes; I was blind to everything else. That was why I couldn't bear looking at that wall...that was why I wanted to destroy it.

It's still there now, 20 years later, but I've forgotten exactly where those bad bricks are. I literally cannot see those mistakes anymore.

How many people end a r/s or get divorced because all they can see in their partner are "2 bad bricks"? In truth, there are many, many more good bricks, but at times we just can't see them. Instead, everytime we look, our eyes focus exclusively on the mistakes. The mistakes are all we see, and they're all we think are there, so we want to destory them.

And sometimes, sadly, we do destroy a "very nice wall".

- Perfection & Guilt, "Opening the door of your Heart".