The Left Hand Holding the Right Hand

One of my wife’s Buddhist friends emailed us a story that we feel strongly about sharing it with others. Hence, this translated attempt. Personally I feel that the translated text seems uneven, even contrived, losing some of the smoothness, the pithiness, and the rhyming elegance inherent in Chinese prose, when delivered by a masterful writer. At the same time, I feel confident that the gist of the message, the essence of the lesson, is not lost in the translation. But you would be the judge, the original text being attached herewith, at the end. Thank you, Claudia, for the great piece.

The left hand holding the right hand: Priceless

There is one widely disseminated story.

One day, at a table full of drinkers, faces red and behavior bordering on inebriety, a man, feeling his tongue loose, opined:

"Holding the hand of a damsel feels like reliving the teen years;
Holding the hand of the sis-in-law makes one regret ever holding a wrong one in the past;
Holding the hand of a lover sends a warm flow through the heart;
Holding the hand of a female classmate makes one regret ever letting it go;
Holding the hand of the wife is like the left hand holding the right hand."

A middle-aged lady in the crowd, after a moment of silence, agreed, “That’s a good way of putting it, the left hand holding the right hand.” The crowd stopped laughing, and stared at her.

The lady continued, “While holding the hand of another can engender an ecstatic sensation, one can always throw it away when it’s over. But throwing away a left or right hand would make one a cripple.

If an able-bodied person professes this attitude toword marriage and life, he/she indeed has something to be proud of.

Once a person has lost a hand, he/she would truly value how precious it is to be able to hold the right hand with the left hand. When he/she holds the hands together subconsciously, he/she is engulfed by a sense of belonging, one that is real and fulfilling.

A marriage that embraces the left hand holding the right hand analogy achieves an elevation to perennial serenity like autumn water.

The passing of time and our advancing age are bound to level off the acute mutual affection and dissipate the passion of married couples, a confounding development that is beyond their control.

But the mutual feelings that are embedded in the wrinkles of thought, and smeared on the white hair of life, are as scintillating as before.

Anybody’s hand would lose its luster when subjected to the daily grind of life.

It’s fair to say that a progression from falling in love to tying the knots is essentially a journey from the magnificent to the mundane. Whatever remains is as ordinary as the left hand holding the right hand.

This scenario may not be a stimulating one, nor romantic, but it’s more real and reliable than “holding somebody else’s hand”.

In this mundane world of ours, a man who is prepared to love his wife the way the left hand is holding the right hand will feel secure in his affection.

As a matter of fact, all men know that holding the hand of a damsel is expensive while holding that of a lover is tiring.

It’s only when the hand in hand belongs to the wife who has stuck with the husband through thick and thin, in riches and in poor, at the abyss of despondency and at the zenith of triumph, that the bliss of union shall linger on, unconditionally in continuity like flowing water.

[Please click on the images for clarity.]