The Lover & His Letters

A LOVER pressed his suit unsuccessfully for many months, suffering the atrocious pain of rejection. Finally, his sweetheart yielded. “Come to such and such a place, at such and such an hour,” she said to him.

At that time and place the lover finally found himself seated beside his beloved. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheaf of love letters that he had written to her over the past months.

They were passionate letters expressing the pain he felt and his burning desire to experience the delights of love and union. He began to read them to his beloved. The hours passed by, but still he read on and on.

Finally the woman said, “What kind of fool are you? Those letters are all about me and your longing for me. Well, here I am sitting with you at last and you are lost in your stupid letters.”

(Traditional story, from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, edited by Chritina Feldman and Jack Kornfield.)