Said one oyster to a neighboring oyster, "I have a great pain within me. It is heavy and round and I am in distress..."

..and the other oyster replied with haughty complacence, "Praise be to the heavens and to the sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole both within and without."
At that moment a crab was passing by and heard the two oysters, and he said to the one who was well and whole -both within and without,
"Yes, you are well and whole; but the pain that your neighbor bears is a pearl of great beauty."

Kahlil Gibran