By Janet M.
Shlaes, Ph.D.
“The most
beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known
suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the
depth. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of
life that fills them with compassion, gentleness and a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.”
~ Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross
Beautiful
people develop over time and the effect of this evolution is spectacular. When
I was an adolescent, someone told me that, for the first half of your life, you
have the face that you were born with and then you ultimately wind up with the
face that you’ve earned. Many years later, in a movie theater, the wisdom of
this statement hit me in a powerful way. My Sunday afternoon plans had fallen
through and I spontaneously decided to see a matinee movie at a local second
run movie theater. I arrived with plenty of time to spare and walked into a
brightly lit theater. Looking around, I first noticed that I was the youngest
person there by about forty years and I was not so young at the time. I quickly
surveyed the faces of my fellow movie viewers and was startled at my discovery.
All of the faces were wrinkled with the ravages of time and life-experience,
but a few faces stood out in a powerful way. These outlier faces commanded my
attention; they appeared to be internally lit and emitted a soft glow which
could only be described as luminescent. The discrepancy between these faces and
the majority was noteworthy and I found myself wondering what was responsible
for this difference. No one reaches a ripe old age beyond the eighties without having
experienced life’s many ups and downs. Yet, these few individuals appeared to
have been polished by their experiences instead of being tarnished. So many
years later, I can still feel the impact of the light and grace in their faces.
Beautiful people evolve over time and the result is spectacular.
Janet
For addition insights and observations,
check out the following posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment