“No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.”

— Oscar Wilde

With great beauty, there is always a little ugliness.

Beautiful hellebores, spoiled by an ugly little slug. Blech.

A few weeks ago, my son won a major prize in his school’s science competition. Beauty!

Tonight, I cleaned out the refrigerator drawer which housed his … umm, scientific specimens. Ugly!

Instead of posting a picture of the offensive, 2-month-old vegetables, I thought a picture of a nice flower would be prettier. Beauty!

But when I snapped the picture, I saw a slug. Ugly!

The simple point about giving is this.

Whenever you help someone, it can be beautiful. But if they don’t appreciate your help, your help isn’t wanted, you make a mistake, or something doesn’t go right, it feels ugly.

That’s ok. It’s expected. Just keep right on giving. Always try hard to learn something from the ugliness, but your honest, generous intentions are a thing of beauty.

Even the most beautiful gifts can have a little ugliness in them.

Cleaned some really disgusting stuff out of our refrigerator because my wife asked. Ugly! Took my son to his piano lesson and stayed and listened to some good music. Beauty!