His thumb softly rubbed the twisted flesh on my cheek. The plastic
surgeon, a good fifteen years my senior, was a very attractive man.
His masculinity and the intensity of his gaze seemed almost
overpowering.
"Hmmm," he said quietly. "Are you a model?"
Is this a joke? Is he kidding? I asked myself and I searched his
handsome face for signs of mockery. No way would anyone ever confuse
me with a fashion model. I was ugly. My mother casually referred to
my sister as her pretty child. Anyone could see I was homely. After
all, I had the scar to prove it.
The accident happened in fourth grade, when a neighbor boy picked up a
hunk of concrete and heaved the mass through the side of my face. An
emergency room doctor stitched together the shreds of skin, pulling
cat-gut through the tattered outside of my face and then suturing the
shards of flesh inside my mouth. For the rest of the year, a huge
bandage from cheekbone to jaw covered the raised angry welt.
A few weeks after the accident, an eye exam revealed I was nearsighted.
Above the ungainly bandage sat a big, thick pair of glasses. Around my
head, a short fuzzy glob of curls stood out like mold growing on old bread.
To save money, Mom had taken me to a beauty school where a student cut my
hair. The overzealous girl hacked away cheerfully. Globs of hair piled up on
the floor. By the time her instructor wandered over, the damage was done. A
quick conference followed, and we were given a coupon for a free styling on
our next visit.
"Well," sighed my father that evening, "you'll always be pretty to me," and
he hesitated, "even if you aren't to the rest of the world."
Right. Thanks. As if I couldn't hear the taunts of the other kids at school.
As if I couldn't see how different I looked from the little girls whom the
teachers fawned over. As if I didn't occasionally catch a glimpse of myself in
the bathroom mirror. In a culture that values beauty, an ugly girl is an
outcast. My looks caused me no end of pain. I sat in my room and sobbed every
time my family watched a beauty pageant or a "talent" search show.
Eventually I decided that if I couldn't be pretty, I would at least be well
groomed. Over the course of years, I learned to style my hair, wear contact
lenses and apply make-up. Watching what worked for other women, I learned to
dress myself to best advantage. And now, I was engaged to be married. The scar,
shrunken and faded with age, stood between me and a new life.
"Of course, I'm not a model," I replied with a small amount of indignation.
The plastic surgeon crossed his arms over his chest and looked at me
appraisingly. "Then why are you concerned about this scar? If there is no
professional reason to have it removed, what brought you here today?"
Suddenly he represented all the men I'd ever known. The eight boys who
turned me down when I invited them to the girls-ask- boys dance. The sporadic
dates I'd had in college. The parade of men who had ignored me since then. The
man whose ring I wore on my left hand. My hand rose to my face. The scar
confirmed it; I was ugly. The room swam before me, as my eyes filled with tears.
The doctor pulled a rolling stool up next to me and sat down. His knees almost
touched mine. His voice was low and soft.
"Let me tell you what I see. I see a beautiful woman. Not a perfect woman, but
a beautiful woman. Lauren Hutton has a gap between her front teeth. Elizabeth
Taylor has a tiny, tiny scar on her forehead," he almost whispered. Then he
paused and handed me a mirror. "I think to myself how every remarkable woman has
an imperfection, and I believe that imperfection makes her beauty more remarkable
because it assures us she is human."
"Imperfections develop character. It is character that develops charisma and the
glow of woman. "
"When a person falls in love, if their mate has an imperfection, that imperfection
becomes special. They become protective of their mate's imperfection."
"We fall in love with a person, not with body parts. Body parts become special,
when the person becomes special."
As the tears were rolling down my face, He said, "You are a very attractive woman
with a very small imperfection. Whether you know it or not, it has given you the glow
of woman."
He pushed back the stool and stood up. "I won't touch it. Don't let anyone else
touch it, either. You are delightful, just the way you are. Beauty really does come
from within a woman. Believe me. It is my business to know."
What a wonderful doctor. I left his office, not with the scar removed from my face,
but with a tear removed from my heart.
Joanna Slan (c) 1998
Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul http://www.chickensoup.com
"Be An Original."
Have a great day!
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