Warts and All

WARTS AND ALL

This story is told about Oliver Cromwell. He was sitting for an artist, who was painting a full-length picture of him. When the painting was complete, Cromwell looked at it and saw that the painter had gone out of his way to make Cromwell more handsome than he actually was. For example, Cromwell had warts on his face, but the painter had opted to omit this.

Cromwell would not accept the finished product. He insisted that that the painter do one more portrait, only this time, he was ordered to paint Cromwell, “warts and all”.

ü     We don’t like the ‘warts and all’ part of who we are.

ü     We could easily prefer the painter who can make us look better than we really are.