iawia.net

Sometime in 1967, I went to the Garrick Theatre in New York City to see Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention perform a sparsely attended show.
It was a rainy day and Frank wore a rain hat which brought a few streams of sweat rolling down his face.
After the show, I went backstage to meet Frank. My sole question was: “What do you look like without that prophylactic hat?” To which Frank responded: “Like a real man.”
The following year, Frank produced a song, some of whose lyrics have ever since resonated with me as funny and profound:

“What is the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it’s your mind.”

There is nothing inherently ugly, yet some things are ugly relative to other things. Only the mind makes things ugly.