Friday, December 21, 2007

Prettiness

Today I had to stand around for a while, outside a dressing room in a department store. While waiting, I noticed all the people in the store at this time of year. This may sound dumb, but it struck me how much prettier the women at church are.

In the store, there were a few pretty females, but a lot who weren't beautiful. The girls and women at the store may have had the make-up and the clothes and the hairstyles that are supposed to make us females beautiful. Compared to the women at church, a greater percentage of the women at the store would "have what it takes" to be in a women's magazine. And yet, most of them just weren't as pretty as the normal-lookin' women that I hang around with. There's something in the faces of my friends (whether aged 15 or 45 or 75) that betrays a kindness and a friendliness. And that something makes a person more attractive, even to strangers.

Andrew was asking a week or so ago about wrinkles and smile-lines, and we talked about how 60-70 years' worth of personality ends up etched in the kind of wrinkle-lines on a person's face. That's why we can so often look at an older person and assess whether the person looks nice or cranky. But that wouldn't explain why personality (brashness, gentleness, arrogance, patience, etc) shows up in the face of a teenager or young mother.

1 comment:

  1. I think that one of the saddest things about the growing popularity of plastic surgery is that women get rid of the smile lines at the corners of their eyes and the crinkles at the corner of their mouth.

    I think that my grandmother had one of the most beautiful faces, because she had earned every lovely line in her face.

    I think you just gave me a blog post. :)

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