After the incident with "I would change my DNA" man, another similar disquieting incident sprung to mind.

It happened some years ago, when I was in high school. I was at the mall with some friends and a man passed by. He was a "street person" that one could see with some regularity if you went downtown enough. He was the man with the horribly disfigured red face.

One of my friends informed the rest of us that he had heard that this man's face was horribly burned but we were not to make fun of him. He had heard that the man had acquired his disfigured face from rescuing children from a burning building. 

But what really stayed with me was this man's hat. It was a generic baseball hat - one of those with a large white front that are sold in photocopy shops or in booths at the mall that allow you to laser-print upon it a photograph of your choice. 

And on the hat of the horribly disfigured red faced man was a slightly faded photograph of a young, smiling man. 

Was that smiling man someone the red faced man was close to? Was it his son? 

Or was it, as I have come to think, a picture of himself in better times. A reminder to us that the two very different faces were that of the same man.