The Goddess Speaks
The Goddess Speaks
THERE is nothing like beauty. It speaks without words. It's just there, working its magic without a thought. We can talk all we want about what's inside and deeper meanings and superficiality, but let's face it, nothing gets the job done quicker. Don’t let beauty
blind youYou see someone beautiful, and somehow the sun is shining and the birds are tweeting and everything is wonderful in the world. Corny as it sounds, that's the way the world works. With dogs, with fish, with Republicans and, I bet, even with naked mole rats.
You fall in love with your kids from the start, but in my case, as in most others', I'll bet it had more to do with them being so irresistibly cute and cuddly than I would like to admit.
My husband has a good heart and countless skills, but damn if he doesn't have great cheekbones. When we first started seeing each other and I would open the door to him, he'd just stand there doing nothing and take my breath away. Of course, love can make you blind, but I think my eyes were just fine. They still are.
It seems that our society has become more and more image-conscious and brand-conscious, putting so much more emphasis on what we appear to be than what we are. You could survey just about any female demographic, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn't pick for herself a face like Britney Spears over the brains of ...?
Gee, I can't even think of a comparably famous smart woman.
Denials aside, the reason my husband, my brother-in-law, my nephew and countless other males between 8 and 80 faithfully watch "Dark Angel" every week has nothing to do with the plot line.
Studies show that good-looking people are believed to possess better qualities than plain ones, get promoted faster, make more money, marry better, etc.
But what can one do? People have all kinds of attributes one can envy -- in music, sports, math, literature, business, whatever -- but beauty is the one, by far, that is the most immediately assessable and obvious to all but the blind.
Beauty can fade, it can mask a dark heart, it can be shallow, it can lead to tragedy. But just as the actress said in a television commercial, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."
No one should take beauty so seriously. Just as we are moved by tropical sunsets or colorful blossoms or a cat looking up at us with hazel almond eyes, we can enjoy the beauty of people, too, without feeling guilty.
But if that beauty comes with that good heart, too, then, well, there must be a God ...
Kathleen N. Sato is a graphic designer
living in Honolulu.
The Goddess Speaks runs every Tuesday
and is a column by and about women, our strengths, weaknesses,
quirks and quandaries. If you have something to say, write it and
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