Why do you talk so funny?!?

I was born with a near cleft palate; I have no uvula (the hangy down thingy in the backs of all of your throats) and I talked nasally for all of my youth. I was picked on mercilessly for that: “Why do you talk so funny?!?” I didn’t know why. And, I didn’t have the self-confidence back then to just own the fact that that was just how I talked. I truly thought there must be something wrong with me; otherwise people, my peers and adults alike, wouldn’t have been so cruel to me, or so I figured. I didn’t grow out of that particular manner of speaking until I went through puberty.

Truth of the matter is God makes each and every one of us differently. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stated, “If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.” Plus, there’s a whole host of things that can go awry during fetal development, some accidents of nature, some consequences of the folly of our elders. Thalidomide and tetracycline for example, are both medicines that were, at one time, widely prescribed to pregnant women, and both having dire consequences on the developing fetus.

In the past, after being teased by my kids about my particular choice of attire, I have jokingly told them that ugly isn’t painful to the wearer, only to the viewer. But, the truth of the matter is this: ugly only really even exists in the eyes of the viewer; it resides solely in their perception. Someone else’s poor perception of you has nothing whatsoever to do with you unless you choose to let it.

by jon m ketcham