Looking Funny

Given how serious my accident was, I'm lucky not to have more problems with the way I look. One thing gives it away, though - my crossed eyes! My brain bouncing around inside my skull damaged a particular nerve that runs to my eye muscles. That damage causes those muscles to behave differently and so the eyes are pulled out of alignment. They will look a lot more normal after surgery I hope to get early next year. Right now, however, they make me look a bit funny.



I don't really mind that. I'm a bit short too and my philosophy on that has always been, sure, underestimate me if you want. If you do, though, I'm going to enjoy proving you wrong! Still, underestimating me is one thing. Treating me different because I look funny is quite another.

My Mum recently came up with a very sensible idea to help with looking funny - dress well! Always dress for a state better than indicated by looking funny - for instance wear a collared shirt, nice pants and decent shoes.



I went looking for articles on the problem of coping with looking funny. Eventually, I found this article on disfigurement from scarring. To get to the interesting stuff, you have to skip to the section, Living with Scars, on page 6. It is worth a read, though. It quotes a researcher as saying, "when people with scars are friendly, relaxed and outgoing, they can overcome strangers' initial recoil." I hope, though, that dressing friendly and outgoing can further improve reactions.

Cheers,
Mike

P.S. I was lucky enough to have a surprisingly good outcome to my surgery, which I talk about in the post, The Slow Walk to Freedom.