Hide the Face… and Build the Nest Once upon a time, in a neighborhood in Damascus, there was a young man named Fouad. Fouad was poor and lived a modest life, in a small room on the rooftop above his parents’ home. Whenever he talked about marriage, he would say: “I want to marry a very beautiful woman and live a comfortable life.” But the truth was that his circumstances did not give him much room to choose. He had no house, no money, and not even a stable job. One day, a matchmaker came to him and said: “There’s a young woman named Souad. Her family is well-off, she owns a house in her name, and her father said he would help her and her husband get started in life.” Fouad became interested and asked: “Okay… but what does she look like?” The matchmaker hesitated for a moment and said: “Well… she’s not exactly the type you’ve always talked about.” Fouad went to see her, but he came back unconvinced. All the way home, he kept saying: “What should I do? I’m not attracted to her… but on the other hand, she has a house, her family is financially comfortable, and my whole life could change.” He sat down with his friend Abu Nasser and told him the whole story. Abu Nasser laughed and said: “Man, what do you want? Do you want to live your life, or spend it searching for the perfect picture you have in your head?” Fouad said: “But I’m not convinced about her looks.” Abu Nasser shook his head and said: “Hide the face… and build the nest!” Fouad laughed and said: “So you mean I should overlook what I don’t like and focus on what I’ll gain from the marriage?” Abu Nasser replied: “Exactly! If you believe that your circumstances and the benefits are more important to you, then hide the face and build the nest.” Fouad kept thinking about it. In the end, he decided to marry Souad—not because he had fallen in love with her at first sight, and not because she looked like the woman he had always imagined, but because he believed that marriage would change his circumstances and provide him with a home, stability, and a better life. As time passed, whenever someone was surprised by his decision and asked: “Really? You married her even though you weren’t attracted to her?” He would laugh and say: “What can we do? We hid the face and built the nest!” Since then, the proverb has been used humorously to describe someone who overlooks a quality they do not like—often related to appearance—because they believe that the benefit they will gain is greater than that drawback. The proverb can also be used outside the context of marriage. Sometimes you may be considering a person or an opportunity that has an obvious flaw, but the benefit it offers is significant to you, so you decide to overlook that flaw and say: “Hide the face and build the nest!” In other words: Ignore what you do not like because, to you, the benefit you will gain is more important.