"God don't make no junk." That's an interesting phrase which I don't believe. To begin with, I'm an atheist. And if God represents nature, the statement is patently untrue. There are mistakes, fails,if you will, everywhere in nature. There have always been plants and animals that have misshapen limbs, missing parts, broken bits. I'm looking at a squirrel out on my deck as I write this. She's got a big bare spot in the middle of her tail. It's not attractive. A friend was visiting the other day and noticed it right away. "Oh, what happened to that one?", she said. I replied that she/he had been around for a few years and seemed to do just fine. Anyway, in the myriad combinations of DNA and seemingly limitless human stupidity, such as environmental degredation and big Pharma , shit happens. I knew I was broken from a very early age because my mom kept trying to get me fixed. This may be one of the first lessons that many ugly people learn; we need to be fixed. I can't address the particular hell of those young people who have gotten to age 13 and suddenly woken up to a face full of zits, or folks who have been damaged by fire or accident. I don't know that particular hell. I'm from the "broken from birth" camp. One of my very first memories is of a doctor removing stitches from my face, very roughly. The thing about getting your face repaired is that it doesn't earn you a lot of sympathy. You don't have cancer or heart disease, you just need to not be so ugly. And trust me, I knew even as a young child that I was much luckier than the kid fighting for his life across the hall in the hospital. I'm just saying that doctors and nurses have only so much compassion and they tend to use it for the kids who need it the most. I've come to believe, as a visibly broken person, that it is "normal" for the first impression I make, especially with men, to be negative. From tiniest amoebae to the great whale, we are here to replicate our DNA, that's all. And we all want the best shot for doing that. We have been programed over eons to look for the best mate, the guy with the broad shoulders, the woman with wide hips. And symmetry. We're all looking for symmetry. It signals health. It signals a good bet that children with that person will be healthy and strong and most able to pass our precious DNA on to the next generation. I am not symmetrical. I am asymmetrical. It's been scientifically proven that everyone, from babies on up, respond more readily to symmetrical faces. Oh well. Here's the thing. Some of us are asymmetrical, and our chances of reproducing are lowered. We are visibly broken. But everyone, every person is flawed. As a child I used to wonder if there was someone in the world who was perfectly happy, a pretty girl who'd grown up in a happy home with enough to eat, got good grades, had good food, fell in love, got married, never felt worry or fear or doubt. Now I know that no such person exists. Everyone, everyone is broken, everyone is flawed, everyone has pain. Being visibly broken from birth, we get that message really early. Shit happens. And to my mind, the earlier you get that lesson, the happier you can be. Life is suffering, things don't always work out, shit happens. Once you get that, really get it, and stop feeling shocked, angry, and resentful every time it smacks you in the face, you can be really grateful for every good day, good hour, good minute.