On Friday, for no apparent reason, I started singing ‘The Ugly Duckling’. I remembered Danny Kaye singing it on uncle Mac’s Children’s Favourites on Saturday mornings, telling Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the large, grey duckling who’s mocked and rejected by the other birds.
There once was an ugly duckling
With feathers all stubby and brown
And the other birds in so many words said
‘Quack,’ Get out of town…
In the Hans Christian Anderson film Danny Kaye sings the song to a boy who thinks he’s ugly; some believe that Andersen wrote it about himself. It is said that he was an ungainly child who was abused at school; he said that his schooldays were the darkest of his entire life…
That poor little ugly duckling
Went wandering far and near
But at every place they said to his face now
‘Quack,’ Get out of here…
Watching ‘Children in Need’ on Friday this picture of children was repeated many times – children who felt that alone because they were different, they didn’t fit in. Physical disability, family difficulties and personal hardships had led to feelings of difference, rejection and a desire to hide and withdraw.
All through the wintertime he hid himself away
Ashamed to show his face, afraid of what others might say
The story hinges on the fact that the ‘ugly duckling’, having endured the harsh winter of rejection is then recognised as a beautiful swan who fits in with the other swans. On Friday we saw children gaining a sense of belonging through people who accepted them for who they are. Discovering that they aren’t ducklings defined by their difference or ugliness, but swans with strength and beauty, they’re proud of their identity.
I’m not such an ugly duckling
No feathers all stubby and brown
For in fact these birds in so many words said
*Tsk* The best in town…
Later this morning I shall go to church where we shall remember together the Jesus who brought a personal transformation to many who met him, enabling ugly ducklings to recognise that they could become beautiful swans. With my church family we shall remember the Jesus who today enables us to overcome adversity and discover our identity, as we seek to grow from grey ugliness to become the swans that we were made to be… alongside other beautiful swans!
Not a quack, not a quack
Not a waddle or a quack
But a glide and a whistle and a snowy white back
And a head so noble and high
“Say, who’s an ugly duckling?
Not I”
