Spare Change

U.G.L.Y...You Ain't Got No Alibi...

Posted by Bryan

ed. note: This entry originally posted October 9, 2002. It has been edited for content, with links changed and added.

A while back, I was reading another blog that referred to a site with pictures of "ugly people." The whole presentation was an anti-"hot or not" thing.

Upon clicking around, you quickly see a garden variety of folks who would never make People's 100 Most Beautiful People. Or even if that number was expanded by a multitude of itself. On this page, there were the hirsute, the tatooed, the obese, the deformed, and the bizarre (when none of the previous descriptors was sufficient to explain the person's appearance).

Now, I'm writing this as a guy who may never be described as "Clooneyesque," but I'm not resorting to wearing a burlap bag over my melon and crying out, "I...am...not...an...animal!" either, but this got me thinking about what really makes a person ugly.

There really are two types of ugly, when you really get down to it. First, there's the your-momma-tied-a-porkchop-around-your-neck-to-get-the-dog-to-play-with-you ugly. Let's call this "surface ugly," because it's a lot easier to type than the first thing I wrote. The reality about this type of ugly, though, is that it is amazingly deceptive. I've come to learn that some folks who might make an amazing first impression are susceptible to actually being surface ugly if caught at the wrong moment. Also, a person is in danger of becoming surface ugly if they make poor choices.

Here's the worst thing about surface ugly, though. Most the time, it is rarely an indicator of the true beauty of a person. More on that in a bit, though, once we cover the other type of ugly.

The second kind of ugly is the I-didn't-know-someone-so-beautiful-could-be-so-ugly ugly.This second type of ugly is also known as "inner ugly." Television profiles this type of ugly all the time.

(ed.note: and it's only become worse as each link above illustrates. In five years, the popularity of Inner Ugly Programming now fills the lineup!)

What do we learn from all this? Well, the media would agree that beauty is only skin deep, but as far as most things are concerned, it would have you believe that "skin deep" is the only depth that matters. Inner beauty is under-valued and Inner-ugly is dismissed as an unavoidable inconvenience for the privilege to be in the presence of surface beauty, no matter how fleeting.

A couple of closing thoughts -- The Bible says that there's nothing about Jesus' appearance that would have drawn people to him. He probably never would have made it on the cover of People's sexiest man alive. That's probably the best thing that came out of The Last Temptation of Christ, casting Willem Dafoe as Jesus and not Brad Pitt (no offense intended, Willem).

That said, it surprises me that there is a common (likely mis)perception of what Jesus probably looked like (based loosely by some halographic image found on the Shroud of Turin, and then Americanized to please our collective conscious) that is in all likelihood so far off base that we'd be amazed.

I think this perception has developed because we are a people so wrapped up in surface beauty. Every tabloid takes note any time any actress puts on five pounds, or wears a "would you be caught dead wearing this" outfit. That has translated to an obsession with dressing our children like adults and throwing modesty away like last season's out-of-style fashion.

The Bible also says that Jesus, before dying on the cross, was beaten in the face, had his beard yanked out, and had a crown of thorns jammed on his head. I'm sure he was a mess when it was all over. Revelation declares that when the apostle John saw the one worthy to open the seals, Jesus appeared as a lamb as though slain. I personally believe, that while Jesus is in His glorified body, He will bear the marks of the crucifixion for eternity.

And we'll find him beautiful.

There's a story of a little girl who was embarrassed about her mom because her mom had horrible scars on her face....

She never wanted her mom to take her anywhere because people always laughed and pointed. One day, the little girl asked why the mom was so ugly. The mom told her that when the little girl was a baby, their home had caught on fire. The mom had run into the nursery, fire scorching her hair and searing her flesh. The mom had plucked her precious daughter from the crib, and dove through the window, cradling the child like a football. The fire, the smoke, cuts from glass, and broken facial bones from the awkward landing all accounted for the mom's unsightly appearance. From that day forward, though, the daughter never again considereed her mother to be ugly. Those scars told of a mother's love for her child.

This might seem like an after-school special, but I really believe that this is the way it will be in eternity.

One last thing -- the Bible says how beautiful are the feet of the one who brings good news. I confess, I got some ugly feet. I have these big toes that look light light bulbs.
I'll never be flip-flop model. Anyway, feet aren't beautiful or ugly based upon whether or not your toes are webbed, your arches are flat, or your heels are hard and scaly. To God, beauty is found in function. Our feet are beautiful if we're using them to take us to other people, to tell them about Him. I'd guess the same thing is true about our eyes, our mouths, our ears, our hearts, our minds, etc.

How beautiful are you by this standard?

May 3, 2008 4:33 PM | TrackBack