One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart, for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.
Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, "Why, your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine."
The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart. It was beating strongly, but was full of scars, and it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but the pieces didn't fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing. The people stared. How can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought?
The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state and laughed. "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine - mine is perfect,and yours is a mess of scars and tears."
"Yes, said the old man, "Yours is perfect looking, but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar in my heart represents a person to whom I have given my love. I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges...giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?"
The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man's heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side. How sad it must be to go through life with a whole heart.
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BRITISH COLUMBIA - Don Sinclair Davis, a B.C. actor best known for his recurring role on the TV show Stargate SG-1, died of a heart attack Sunday morning at his home in Gibsons. He was 65.
"He had a massive heart attack," said Gail Wilson, a friend who lives just down the street from Davis. "The ambulances came [and] I know they tried to resuscitate him in the driveway and couldn't."
Wilson said Davis had had heart problems for years and suffered from diabetes.
Davis leaves behind his wife Ruby Fleming-Davis, who he married in 2003, and a son from a previous marriage.
Davis, who had a PhD in theatre, was born and raised in Missouri and began acting in the early 1980s while teaching at the University of British Columbia. In 1987, he gave up teaching to act full time.
Davis served three years in the army in the 1960s and two of his best-known TV roles were playing military men: General George Hammond in Stargate SG-1 and Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks.
Phil Hayes, a friend of Davis' who lives in Los Angeles, said Davis was "very talented" but also very modest.
"He was fantastic, very self-effacing," said Hayes. "He wouldn't take a compliment."
He was also an artist - a skill Hayes said Davis first picked up doing set design - and he had recently begun promoting his paintings and sculptures online.
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