The Ugly-Baby Test

There’s a test that I have personally developed over the years that I have been meaning to share with my Last Symptom friends, but I just never seem to get around to it in a comprehensive way.

Sometimes I use this test on people I’m meeting out in my personal life for the first time to quickly learn if they are emotionally healthy or not. I’ll just come right out and say something like, “Can you tell me the last time you saw an ugly baby?”

Of course, this surprises them and sets them back a bit, and they will laugh nervously and think I’m joking.

But I’m not joking. What they don’t know is that they are being tested so that I can know if they are able to see the world as it really is, or do they live a life as slaves to Denial (allowing their feelings to determine “truths” for them).

Unhealthy people will protest and say something absurdly false like, “Oh that’s terrible! There’s no such thing as an ugly baby! All babies are beautiful!” (This isn’t true no matter how much anybody might wish it.)

Healthy people - while maybe not remembering the exact specifics of the last time they saw an ugly baby - will at least acknowledge the reality that not all babies are beautiful in appearance. In other words, ugly babies do, in fact, exist.

What you have here is one group of people who is not able to view reality as it is (because their feelings don’t allow for it), and another group of people who is able to view reality as it is, no matter how it makes them feel.

If a person is able to see the world as it really is, then that’s a person I’m open to the idea of getting closer to. On the other hand, for those who see the world through the filter of their emotions, those are people I will continue to be friendly towards when we encounter each other, but I will always maintain a safe distance from them.

(Only unwanted drama and conflict await you in any close relationship with emotionally-unhealthy people.)

The Ugly-Baby Test is simply this:

Are you able to accept that some babies are ugly. If so, it shows an ability to see the world as it really is. If you can’t, it shows that your emotions rule you and blind you to life’s realities.

It really is that simple. It is a perfect test to immediately understand if people you meet are generally emotionally healthy or not.

If you spend time thinking about the mechanics involved that move a person to deny that sweet, little, innocent babies can be ugly, you will perfectly understand the same mechanics of what is happening when a woman denies that her abusive spouse is abusive, when children deny that their bad parents aren’t good people, when a man denies he is attracted to somebody he is attracted to, when people continue hating a person who is doing inarguably good things, when people believe themselves to be great even while consistently demonstrating primarily negative qualities, and so forth.

It is a Denial test, and I have yet to come across a more powerful, or simpler form of it.