The Ugly Duckling
There's something bothersome about the story of the Ugly Duckling. On the surface, it seems to be teaching a good lesson — that one shouldn't judge another based on their appearences. Because they might suddenly become beautiful later. But wait, I thought we weren't supposed to be judging based on that …
Or maybe it's saying that you shouldn't feel bad about being ugly because — I don't know — you might suddenly become pretty later?
No, in truth I guess the story is meant to be a metaphor for going through puberty. In that respect, I suppose it's fine. It presumably means to give hope to adolescents that an uncomfortable phase will pass.
This skin condition will clear up. Unless it doesn't.
But that's not always how the story is presented. It's all to easy to generalize and try to make it about poor treatment in general, or ugliness in general. But when applied to other contexts, the Ugly Duckling's seemingly magical transformation which solves all of its problems feels shallow. It comes across as a deus-ex-machina cop out, because in truth not everything that is broken can be fixed, and certainly won't fix itself so effortlessly.
Instead of hoping for salvation, learn to find joy in the here-and-now. And I don't mean to encourage a complacent acceptance of bad situations, but activate your curiosity and explore what you might normally dismiss.
Wow, that sounds like a bad Horoscope.
Check out this blue one:
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