Beauty

As I was in the temple the other day, I was working with a woman who was completely wrinkled. Every inch of her face was a wrinkle, it seemed. But, she was glowing with happiness and kindness and I couldn't help but think she was beautiful for that. Seeing her wrinkles, however, reminded me of an ad that's popped up on websites frequently, that shows the difference this product can make for wrinkled skin.  (Curiously, there's also a disclaimer on the ad that says the results aren't typical. Ha!) Nonetheless, it does target this supposition in society that wrinkles aren't attractive, so people must not want them. But thinking about this woman, I tried to imagine her wrinkle-free, and it just seemed to me that it wouldn't make a bit of difference. If anything, she was more beautiful for her wrinkles. But really, her kindness and happiness--that is, having the Spirit of the Lord with her is what made her beautiful. She simply glowed with it.

Then, I took another step in my thinking. Is the wrinkle-free, shininess that is advertised as making one beautiful a way of women trying to target that glow they know they want, but with a misunderstanding of the source? Is there something innate in us that sees the glowing aspect of beautiful people that makes us want to emulate it, but without a knowledge of where it comes from, it's pretty hard to replicate. You can draw the conclusions you want from here, but I just thought I'd share some ponderings.