Fickle Us

Today I read an article about an actress altering her appearance,

and I noted how Fickle our society is.

Changeable. Temperamental. Unstable. Unreliable. Shallow.

One day the media approve of someone's appearance, the next day they drag their name through the mud.

It's all about the external; always about how people look on the Outside, never about who we are on the inside.

I might have been judgemental, if I hadn't remembered that I've done the same thing myself.

We find someone attractive, until they grow their hair,

or cut it off,

or put on a bit of weight,

or lose a bit of weight,

or we see them in casual clothes,

or we hear them speak,

or they age,

or they lose their tan,

or they get drunk,

or they smoke,

or we witness them without make-up,

or their hair goes grey,

or they get wrinkles,

or  or  or

Isn't this pathetic of us? Always looking on the outside. Rejecting or accepting someone because of their appearance. How shallow. How fickle. Never taking the time to get to know the person on the inside. Who made me a judge anyway? Who gave me the right to damn this person or elevate another? That's correct, I have NO right to condemn in this way. My job is to first accept and love myself, then to learn to do this for others.

Reminds me of a place I worked in. There were two very different ladies:

1.     The first was young, very outgoing and friendly, loud and exciting, bubbly and engaging, holding eye contact, slightly flirting.

2.     The second was older, quiet, looked down a lot, never made eye contact, appeared unfriendly, didn't engage, just got on with her work.

In my shallowness, I presumed the lively, exciting lady was my friend and the quieter lady didn't like me. How wrong I was to judge by appearance!

It turned out the bouncy, outgoing lady was false, and doing things for political reasons and career advancement. She didn't care about me, and ended up being quite unhelpful.

Whereas the quieter lady was very friendly in her own way, and ended up being extremely helpful to me.

I learnt a lot that day, about looking deeper within a person, to find and accept the real THEM, which is so much more than just external appearance.

If you find a person who is beautiful on the inside, keep them!