这是一个从越战归来的士兵的故事。他从旧金山打电话给他的父母，告诉他们：“爸妈，我回来了，可是我想带一个朋友同我一起回家。”

“当然好啊！”他们回答，“我们会很高兴见到他的。”

“可是有件事我想先告诉你们，”儿子又继续说下去，“他在越战中受了重伤，踩到地雷被炸断了一条胳膊和一条腿。他现在走投无路，我想请他回来和我们一起生活。”

“儿子，我很遗憾，不过或许我们可以帮他找个安身之处。”

“不，爸妈，我想要他和我们一起生活。”

“儿子，你不知道自己在说些什么。”父亲接着说道，“像他这样残障的人会对我们生活造成很大的负担。我们还有自己的生活，不能这样让他破坏了。我建议你先回家，然后忘了他，他会找到自己的一片天空的。"

这时候儿子说了声“好吧”，就挂断了电话，他的父母之后再也没有听到他的消息了。

几天以后，这对父母接到旧金山警察局的电话，说他们的儿子坠楼身亡了。

警方认定这是一桩单纯的自杀案件，于是他们伤心欲绝的飞往旧金山，并在警方带领之下到停尸间去辨认儿子的遗体。那的确是他们心爱的宝贝儿子，但让他们惊讶的是，儿子居然只有一条胳膊和一条腿。

故事中的父母就和我们大多数人一样，喜爱面容姣好或谈吐风趣的人很容易，但是要喜欢那些造成我们不便和不快的人却太难。我们总是宁愿和那些不如我们健康、美丽或聪明的人保持距离。

爱心与情感会影响你的思维，这一点毫无疑问。如果你缺少爱心，缺少对弱者的同情，有时候你就会做出错误的决定。事实上，你所面对的不幸可能只是一种假象，这个假象是对你情感的一种考验。包容心有时候能帮助你做出正确的决定。

A soldier was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco. "Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know," the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."

"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."

"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point the son said OK and hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.

A few days later, however, they received a telephone call from the San Francisco Police Department.

They were told that their son had died after falling from a building. The police believed it was suicide.

The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized their beloved and precious son immediately, but to their horror, they also discovered something they didn't know: Their son had only one arm and one leg.