Scars Character or battle scars?

[Luv]

I think its both,,either was there are lotsa stories about how ya got em. I've had 12 surgeries,,there is always a story.

[Stearns]

Not so much character-building, as "unique identifiers". Kinda like dental records or fingerprints... Anyway, here's mine:

Left knee - surgery for cartilage torn at the gym

Chin - racing my bicycle and the kid I was racing turned his front wheel into my back wheel b/c I was beating him. I went over the handlebars and chin- planted on the asphalt.

Right ankle - the pedal on my banana-seat bicycle would slip off, and the pedal frame gouged out my skin.

Left elbow - surgery scar from another bicycle mishap. Chain broke, I was thrown off, broke my elbow.

Inner right forearm - scar from a hot mini-bike muffler

Left leg - a neighborhood dog attacked my dog and I stepped in between them. Took it in the calf.

Right ankle - Burglar alarm call. Dog didn't appreciate me being in its yard to check on the house.

Chest - surgery

Neck - surgery for herniated discs

Back - cyst removed

Right shoulder - rotator cuff repair. Tore it at the gym.

Right knuckle - sliced by glass that fell out of a picture frame

Lower abdomen - Removal of organs that should have never been there in the first place

Right hip - didn't realize the tail of my shirt was in the flame of a candle and it caught on fire and burned me

Forehead - small star-shaped scar from falling on brick steps when I was 3. Although my mother forbade me to run up and down our front steps, I did it anyway. I just NEEDED to.

I think that's everything.

[JustJo]

Reading this thread makes me realize that, for age 48, I am remarkably unscarred.

I have a tiny one on my chin, where I cracked it open and needed stitches (twice!) at the age of 5 or 6.

Right knee...vertical scar about an inch long...getting it pinned and dragged along a fence by a horse that preferred not to cooperate.

And it's not a scar, but I have an extremely annoying ganglian cyst on my left wrist...looks like a lump under the skin (ick) from over-stressing the joint when I renovated my office. That one will be going when I can psych myself up enough to do it... (fraidy cat here)

That's it.

As far as scars on other people...I look at them the same way I do wrinkles or grey hair...just a part of who they are, and part of what we accumulate as we live.