The novelist, Harry Crews, shares an insight into the human condition that he learned as a youngster.

"I first became fascinated with the Sears Roebuck catalog, because all the people in its pages were perfect. Nearly everyone I knew, had something missing, a finger cut off, a toe split, an ear half-chewed away, an eye clouded with blindness, from a glancing fence staple. And if they didn''t have something missing, they were carrying scars from barbed wire or knives, or fish hooks. But the people in the catalog, had no such hurts. They were not only whole, but they were also beautiful. Their legs were straight, and their heads were never bald, and on their faces were beautiful expressions, that I never saw much of in the faces around me.

"Young as I was, though, I had known for a long ti…