My dad always called scars badges of honor. It is perhaps why I am not worried about scars I carry.
My friend Ha was cutting my hair the other day and mentioned that her husband just noticed that she had two moles on her chin. She was amazed that he hadn't noticed before. Kevin was waiting while I got my hair cut so I tested him. "Kev? Where do I have a scar?"
He immediately knew: "It's on your lip. Duh."
I have a fairly decent scar on my upper lip that is kind of jagged from left nostril to right-ish corner of my lip. I don't remember when I got it but rumor has it I was playing with my brothers and fell when I was two years old.
I don't notice it anymore. Being "blessed" with Irish skin, I don't tan much. It fades in the winter, shows a little more in the summer and it is not as if it is the first thing you notice about my appearance.
Even if it were, I wouldn't change it. I earned that scar.
That's why the new medicine ads that profess making scars disappear bother me. There is nothing wrong with scars. Every one tells a story. Every one is a part of how you came to be the person you are. Sure there are scars that are quite unfortunate that should be fixed if possible. But the scars in these ads are from normal childhood injuries.
Once when I was having hearing issues, an ENT doctor looked closely at my face. "Hmmm" he said "I can fix that."
"Fix what?" I asked, trying to think WTF he was talking about. What is on my face that would fix my hearing?
"Your scar. A quick laser treatment and it would be nearly gone."
"No" was my immediate answer. In fact, I was a little offended.
Badges of Honor. My dad didn't give me a lot in this life but he did give me that.
What scars do you have? Would you change them?
5 comments:
I have my c-section scars. I have four, but I can only see three because one was pretty much in the same place as another. I don't feel any impulse to remove them. I was surprised when the OB apologized for not being able to make the third and fourth in the same location as the first and second---heck, I wished I could see all four!
I have one on my chin from falling in the ruins of Rome right after high school (don't think they were too concerned with safety like they are now! LOL!). Would never remove it. Good memories.
I have 6 scars, of which 2 are from operations. Most of the 'accident' scars I have came from playing as a kid or sports related injury. The most recent one is on the inside of my left arm about 3 inches below my wrist which I got when giving our cat ear drops (the little 'darling' decided to struggle violently and he has razor sharp claws). I have an op scar on my lower right stomach from having my appendix removed and that is probably the only scar I wish I could get rid of, but it is covered most of the time so it doesn't really bug me. My other op scar is a 4 and a half inch vertical scar on my right knee, accompanied by 4 much smaller ones (2 above the knee cap, and 2 below). It was a horse riding accident where my knee got wrenched and twisted so that the tissue layers tore away from each other. GP said it was 'bone bruising' and I walked around for 6 months before another doc happened to look at it and sent me to an orthapedic surgeon. They had to cut away part of my thigh muscle that had died due to compromised blood flow, scrape out the injury site etc. They smaller scars came from the camera that they put in to make sure that the rest of the joint was ok. The op failed to get the layers to re-attach so the knee looks permanently swollen and not quite right so that makes me self conscious (don't like to wear shorts etc), but at least the scar comes with a dramatic story ;-)
@ Swistle & Bea - those are most definitely Badges of Honor!!!
@Anonymous - You Win! (:-D Knee surgery scars are gnarly anyway but you got the bonus round!
i have a crescent moon shaped scar on my middle toe on my right foot from a glass cut when i was a toddler. in my eyebrow i have what looks to be a chicken pox scar (you can barely even see it) but it's really a zit scar from when i was in high school : ) lol. i have a very faded scar on my calf from getting burned on the exhaust pipe of a motor cycle (also high school-ish age).
i like this post--i might have to do a scar post now : )
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