Beauty is Fleeting


This picture of Marilyn Monroe that is making the rounds on the web. Her gaze looks sad and distant. In keeping with the previous post's theme of "While It Lasts," is not beauty the quintessential example of here today, gone tomorrow? Somehow this photograph of MM seems to embody the question. Like a flower, beauty fades. When Marilyn died relatively young, it did freeze her iconic look for time eternal. Sort of like James Dean. No pictures of her as a frail old lady smoking a cigarette while pushing a grocery cart replacing earlier images. The layering of age had not progressed into that. There is that ciggy reference again. Maybe I am just dying to be a smoker once more.

It makes me wonder why we value physical beauty so much in people. It really does become a measure of worth. I suppose aesthetics in appearance has an artistic plane. That appreciation is fine where it is. But, then the image of visual attractiveness devolves into idolatry which is essentially assigning value where it is ultimately misplaced and misdirected. How do we counter this inclination of assigning value? I am not sure. We appreciate beauty, we adore beauty. But, that does not mean we are to favor beauty when making considerations and choices of who gets what. God expects us to not be so easily fooled and swayed.

Remembering that God does not judge by outward appearance but by the heart is not only true of the beautiful person but also those of us gazing upon such beauty. If outward beauty is causative of inner ugliness, then we have gone extremely astray.      



 

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