The three infidelities

A soldier went off to war and while he was fighting in the war his wife was unfaithful to him three times.

The first time she was unfaithful to him, at that very same moment, on the battlefield, the soldier, because of shrapnel, lost an eye but though he only had one eye he refused to give up serving his country and wore a glass eye instead.

The second time she was unfaithful, at that very same moment, his left hand, in a sword battle, was cut off but he refused to give up fighting for his country and carried on with a wooden hand.

The third time she was unfaithful to him, because of a cannon ball, he lost one of his legs and because he was judged too badly injured to go on fighting, he was sent home with a medal for bravery.

When he came home, his wife felt very guilty for being unfaithful to him and she confessed to him what she had done.

“Will you still love me even though I have only one eye, one hand and one leg?”, he asked his wife, “And never be unfaithful again”.

“I’ll will”, she said, “Always”.

“Then”, he said, “Whenever I think of the first man; I will think of my missing eye and the fact that you still love me. Whenever I think of the second man, I will think of my wooden hand and the fact that you still love me and whenever I think of the third man, I’ll think of my missing leg and the fact that, in spite of being a cripple, you still love me and what you’ve done won’t matter. You still love me in spite of those things and I’ll still love you and let the past go”.

And the woman and her husband loved each other faithfully forevermore. Life is not perfect; people are not; it and they are filled with flaws and problems but that is why love exists to make those flaws and problems seem smaller and those who let love do its work find that they really don’t need perfection to find true happiness.