There once was a man who married a very ugly woman. No one in town
could understand why he would choose to take her as a bride, because of the
way that she looked. People made fun of him and her behind their backs,
talked about them all the time, and called the man stupid and desperate for
marrying her. But every time the man heard one of these rumors, he just
smiled and said, "She is beautiful to me."
Eventually, the man and his wife moved out of town, and they where
not heard from for many years. But one day a friend of the couple decided to
stop by and see how they where doing. When he knocked on the door, it was
opened by a beautiful woman. Shocked, the man stepped inside. "Honey, you
have a visitor.", said the woman. The guest stepped into the living room
where the man was sitting.
"Hello, friend! It has been a while, how are you doing?" asked the man.
"Fine," said the friend, "but who is that?"
"That is my wife." said the man with a smile, "why?"
"Because she is gorgeous!" said the guest "Did you remarry?"
"No," answered the man with a smile, "I didn't remarry."
"Then who is that?" asked the guest. He remembered all too well the looks of
the woman he had met all those years before, the ugly woman that this man
had married.
"That is my wife." said the man with a smile. "You see, what no one seemed
to understand was that everytime I saw her, I saw a beautiful woman. And so
I always treated her as my precious, precious princess. She was like my most
beloved glass doll, something I would never break, not ever. And when she
came to beleive that I saw her as something beautiful, she began to see that
same beauty in herself. And when she did that, she became beautiful, not just
to me, but to everyone else also."
