I had a 3 millimeter black scar removed from my nose yesterday and had to wear a big white bandage across my nose afterward. I ended up running errands all day yesterday and people went out of their way to make me feel like I looked pretty dumb. It was great! I mean, I knew I looked a little goofy. It wasn't exactly small. But I didn't look that weird. All I had was a white bandage on my face. No crazy deformity that would justify them needing to stare long enough to figure out what was wrong with me.
And I'm not sure why, but I think I just assumed it wasn't that strange. I've sure seen stranger things. But I caught people looking at me with empathy. When funny enough, I really didn't think it was a big deal. Some people would sputter something about liking my hat if their gaze was frozen on me long enough to make even themselves uncomforable. When my brother saw me he asked what happened. And I said, "What happened to what?" After a while I forgot it was there.
But I got to take the bandage off today. Some people don't get to take their scar off once they're tired of having it. They can't just put their arm back on or make their limp go away. It's ok to look. We look at people we think are gorgeous, or who have pink hair and tattoos. We look to learn, to remember. To satisfy our mind's appetite for all things new and interesting. But watch and look respectfully. We can't all remove our weird once we're tired of being looked at.
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