A beautiful face will age and a perfect body will change, but a beautiful soul will always be a beautiful soul.
A beautiful face will age and a perfect body will change, but a beautiful soul will always be a beautiful soul.
Curious to me how people spend insane fortunes on maintaining an outward appearance but allocate a minimal amount of time developing their true being.
Coming up in the world of Hollywood, the external beauty component could not be any more rampant than in the entertainment industry. Magazine articles talking about how well this plastic surgery went and how poorly that one went are dime a dozen.
One only need look at Michael Jackson to see the tragedy of a torn soul hoping and wishing to be something else (all the while being one of the most talented people on Earth). If you look at his pictures from the earlier years to the later years, he evolved from really handsome to a ghostly apparition until finally whatever was brewing inside, consumed him.
As I have grown older, I have become far less impressed by a beautiful physical appearance and far more impressed with the person inside. Like anyone, I have my personal tastes and attractions, but those notwithstanding, the core determining factor for me is learning the internal composition of the people with whom I am dealing.
One of the core benefits of trafficking these aphorism musings on a daily basis, is the forced process of sorting through all sorts of thoughts, trying to find one that speaks to me. One that gives me cause to muse a bit. One might assume that there are tens of thousands of these, so how difficult might that be? The truth is that there are countless wise sayings but only a handful speak to the life perspective and philosophies that are important to me. Many are trite and not eloquent in their construction, and others are just statements that people made, which may or may not be true, but do not carry the lesson that I was looking for in my daily search.
With almost a thousand of these musings under my belt, it would be easy to presume that what needs to be learned is said and done. Perhaps it is my memory, or my lifestyle, but it feels like even the ones that I already know and implement in my daily existence, are still a valuable addition to my day. Sometimes they find me serendipitously, leaving me feeling as if my father is watching over me and sending me a thought to consider in the face of my day in/day out experiences. Other times, I pick one that is just a great saying, and one of you will respond with how it was just what was needed in your world.
Life is chaotic at best and at worst, it can be horrific. So if chaotic is a high point, then understanding how to turn chaos into tranquility is a great art to pursue. It is good for your internal biorhythms. It is good for your soul and it helps to stabilize your awareness in ways that you may never be fully cognizant of.
Is it more important to be a beautiful soul than a beautiful face? I will leave that determination to you and your value system…. But I will comment the following: I have never been a beautiful face. Not today, not ever. My course in life is to find a much deeper beauty. One that I can hold onto in times of fear and desperation, one that I can show up with at any conversation, relationship, or experience and summon at a moment’s notice. I may never win the other party over with a George Clooney smile, but I have a much higher likelihood of winning them over by speaking with them and allowing them to be exposed to me and the way that I think.
It is not that I purport to be brilliant or that my way of thinking is supreme or paramount. To the contrary, it is flawed and biased on my best days…. But, overall, I have learned that in the delicate art of communication, I have enough of the right tools within to engage anyone, in any walk of life, with any degree from any university, and win them over as my friend. I know how to listen to what they are communicating, reflect an understanding of that back to them so as to create that bond, and to open a real discourse with them that is meaningful and which builds a bond that can last a lifetime.
I am sure that being devastatingly handsome like Brad Pitt or George Clooney must come with some wonderful privileges, but if we are not given those resources genetically, then we are even more well served to discover how to develop an inner beauty which will serve us long after those sought after looks have faded off the bloom.
Some of my most favorite people in life are my elders. The ones who have lived a full life, who have a large cache of experiences and who have grown to appreciate values that resonate for me and are most adept at sharing that knowledge when called upon.
Physical appearance is a wonderful asset, but internal beauty and depth of character is a lifelong resource that far exceeds a gorgeous smile, any day!
Happy Wednesday!
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