Once upon a time there was a sun. Like many other suns in the galaxies, this one had many planets revolving around him. For one of the planets, this sun gave just enough warmth, but not too much, so as to sustain life. Not only was there life on that planet, but some of the living creatures could think, and ask questions about the sun about and everything else in the world. The sun liked to listen to these people ask questions and try to answer them. The questioners and answerers made him happy that he could give them warmth and light for them to live by.

Another thing that made this sun happy were the flares that exploded on his surface. From time to time, these flares leaped up in the air with new and exciting somersaults. There was never a dull moment.

The sun also enjoyed his sunspots. Every now and then, a pair of large sunspots would appear along his equator. The sunspots looked dark from a distance, as the sun was to learn from the creatures on the planet, but the spots were really very bright to the sun. It is just that the spots weren't as bright as the other flames dancing about on the sun's surface. This sun loved his sunspots because they cooled him down just a little, just enough to make him his heat more comfortable for him. The days when the sunspots cooled him were the happiest of his life.

The sun's spots helped him in another way as well. When he became too hot, his flames and flares started to pull away from each other. But when the spots reappeared, they met at his equator like two long lost lovers, and pulled the sun back together again.

But on the planet where his heat could sustain life, there were two such questioning and answering creatures who considered themselves wise. They studied the sun through a telescope that they had just invented that was specially designed to shade their eyes from the sun's light so they could study him. Since the sun shed its warmth and light on these wise sun watchers along with everybody else, the sun could hear what they were saying. These wise creatures carried on a most wise and learned argument between themselves.

"I tell you," the first creature said most wisely, "that the sun is absolutely perfect and without blemish. There can nothing can be wrong with it. Such is the law of the universe. Therefore, there are no sunspots."

"But I can see them with my eyes," insisted the wise creature's companion. "Right now there is a pair of sunspots meeting at the sun's equator. This proves that the sun is not as perfect as you say."

"Then why can I not see these alleged sunspots?" asked the first wise creature.

"That is simple," the other rejoined. "You had made up your mind as to what you were going to see and not see before you looked."

"And you had made up your mind before looking that you were going to find something wrong with the sun," the first retorted to the second.

"I was only looking to see if in fact there was something wrong," said the second. "I had not made up my mind about the matter. But now that I have seen the sunspots, my mind is made up. The sun is not perfect. We need no longer feel that it is better than we are."

"How can you say such a thing?" asked the first wise creature in horror.

"By saying the words," said the second wise creature. "Now we know that we, with all the splotches and imperfections on our characters, are just as good as the sun, or at least that we are no worse than the sun. Who knows, perhaps some day we shall prove that we are even better than the sun!"

"How can you presume to think such a thing?" cried the first wise creature in horror.

"By looking through the telescope and seeing for myself that what I say is true," replied the second.

And so the two wise creatures argued on and on into the night. Meanwhile, the sun wandered to other parts of the planet and gave sunlight to other creatures and listened to them argue about whether their planet was round or flat. The argument between the two wise creatures who had been watching him disturbed the sun greatly. He had never thought of the matters discussed by them. He had not suspected that the sunspots made him imperfect. He had thought that there was nothing wrong with the spots if they cut down, if only a little, the heat and light he sent to the planets. But he wanted to be a perfect sun such as the first wise creature thought he was. After all, this was a questioning and answering creature who respected him. The second wise creature did not respect him at all because of his spots. If word spread throughout the planet that he was marred by his spots, then the day would come when nobody would think well of him and of the warmth and light he gave them. Then where would he and the planet and its wise creatures be?

So the sun started a great storm on his surface. He stirred up the most powerful solar flares he could to scrub himself clean of his sunspots. And he succeeded. The sunspots went away and his light became perfectly bright when it beamed down on his planets. You can imagine the sun's deep satisfaction the next day when he again overheard the two wise creatures talking about him.

"I tell you," said the second wise creature who had defended his perfection the day before, "that try as I might, I can see no spots on this sun. I challenge you to point them out to me."

The first wise creature squinted through the telescope, looking all over the sun for the spots it had seen before. Finally this creature turned away from the telescope with a heavy heart.

"As sure as I was yesterday of the spots, I can see none today. Perhaps the sun really is more perfect that I thought."

"And as perfect as I knew it was all along," gloated the second wise creature. "It is only your eyesight which is imperfect."

So the sun was happy with his perfection. He was so happy, that the discomfort of his growing heat did not even bother him. Such was the price of being perfect. The only trouble was that the rays he sent to the planet became so hot that all life on the planet shriveled up and died. The two wise creatures who had studied him through the telescope were among the first to die of sunstroke. With all the living creatures dead, the wise and the foolish, the sun became lonely, and his perfection no longer made his growing heat more bearable. Worse yet, with no spots to pull him together, his flames started to pull away from each other. The sun reached the point where he was about to break apart altogether. He feared that the explosion would rock all the galaxies in the universe.

But just when everything seemed lost, the Being who had brought, the sun, sunspots and the planets into being poured love through the sun and brought out a new pair of spots from the sun's depth. The sun started to cool down just enough to make his heat comfortable again, and the sunspots brought him back together. His planets cooled down just enough that life could begin again on one of them. This time, the sun knew that if any of the wise creatures complained about the spots, he would not listen to them. Instead, he would wait patiently for the wise creatures to become truly wise.