In a society where flawless beauty is prized and people spend thousands of dollars each year on therapy to rid themselves of their personal quirks, it may seem odd to extol the virtues of imperfection. In fact, accepted wisdom regards imperfections as hateful; as Lord Chesterfield said, ôMen are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimesö (ôImperfections Quotesö).
However, I propose that not only can imperfections be beautiful, we would miss them if they were eradicated. Whether we realize it consciously or not, we tend to love peopleÆs imperfections even more than their merits and their beauty.
As a case in point, I offer the imperfections of my dog, Elizabeth. When I first brought her home from the breederÆs after paying what I thought was an outrageously high price, I discovered some imperfections. One of her toes had a deformed toenail that was opaque rather than clear, like her other nails; the nail twisted upon itself rather strangely. I remember thinking, ôI paid all this money, and this dog has this unsightly problem.ö For a long time, that twisted nail bothered me. Through long years of living with Elizabeth, though, I came to love the sight of that twisted nail. She became diabetic, and at one point developed such a severe case of pancreatitis that she was not expected to live through the night. I was grieved beyond all reckoning. When I went to visit her at the vetÆs after she had spent the day there under close watch, the sight of her weary face, eyes closed, and her little body too exhausted to move, almost did me in. I tenderly took her paw in my hand, and fingered the deformed nail as if it were the most precious attribute about her. I had never been so glad to see that nail before; I suddenly loved it, because it was her nail. When she recovered weeks later, I delighted in holding her and fingering her nail again, re
...