The old tale of the Ugly Duckling is a very true and important one. However, even while in "ugly duckling" roles, there is some good that would not otherwise be. I am reading an excellent book "Zen and the Art of Making a Living" which talks about finding your calling in life. Many of us aren't fully pursuing our calling in life and may feel bad about that because in an ideal world perhaps we would all be pursuing our calling. But this is not an ideal world and working in non-ideal career means we are working with others who are also not working in their ideal career. If ALL swans realized what they were ugly ducklings and found their ideal role except for one swan, then that one would have no examples to show it the concept of ugly ducklings. Such a world would be a world without examples to help swans out of duck delusions. If all of us could see how our talents do find some expression and that by showing just a little bit of our talents we can encourage others with those talents and that we do a little bit toward our calling by that encouragement, then perhaps all of us could smile inside a little bit more...