Ignorance of Beauty
- By Kaitlyn Leung
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- 30 Sep, 2019
I once came across a short story for children that taught the importance of inner beauty.
This parable is the tale of a young woman with the world’s most impeccable, pristine and flawless heart. One day, she stood in the middle of a crowded marketplace and shouted:
“People, look here, for I have the most beautiful heart in the world.”
Many people who saw the heart were mesmerized by its perfection; it was a beautiful dark color, shaped nicely, and its appearance bore not a single flaw or faded scar.
However, an old woman came stumbling forward, leaning on her cane.
“That isn’t true, for I have the most beautiful heart in the world,” she said.
The young woman challenged her by asking to see her heart. When the old woman showed it to her, the former laughed in her face, for the heart showed to her was full of flaws. The surface was rough and uneven, and had ugly scars all over. Moreover, the heart looked incomplete, as though bits and pieces of various shapes, sizes and colors were joined together.
Looking at the old woman’s heart, the young woman started laughing and said to her,
“You are demented; this heart is full of wounds and scars, and mine has no flaws. How can you say that your heart is beautiful?”
“My dear girl, my heart is just as beautiful as yours, if not more.” The old woman replied. “Do you see these scars? Each one represents a moment when I shared love with someone else. When I give love to someone, I also give them a piece of my heart, and receive one in return to replace the piece I lost. I give different pieces to everyone, and don’t always receive love from those to whom I gave mine. That’s why my heart is full of uneven pieces.”
The young woman folded her arms with disbelief.
“Your heart is full and bears no scars.You’ve never shared love with anybody,” the old woman continued, “and the color indicates that you’ve never received any love in return. Now tell me, what good does your heart do if you won’t ever use it?”
*
The late Dale Carnegie was the developer of a series of courses on self improvement that garnered a great deal of attention, and one of the things he said was that of all the things people ever do with their lives, there are only two motivators: the sex urge and the desire to be important. I think there is one more that he forgot, something that only children and a small handful of adults truly possess, something that real artists, teachers, musicians and authors would recognise as priceless. I am referring to the deep, burning, unquenchable desire to see beauty in at all times, in all places.
Very few adults in our society are fortunate enough to be able to go around without their eyebrows furrowed and lips turned down in a frown, because their minds are too busy being focused on work, problems, labour and chores lying in front of them. There are so many pressing issues, things that need to be dealt with immediately, that we march straight from our homes to another building without noticing the beautiful, cloudless sky, yet we do notice, and feel a stab of annoyance when it rains.
How many of us are unknowingly caught up in trying to exist that we forget to live? How many of us are so busy pursuing success that we walk straight past indescribable beauty that will reveal itself to us, if we only care enough to look? Those who yearn for beauty will see beauty, because they are the ones that radiate love like the old woman, and receive love in return. They receive love, because to see beauty in all places is to receive love from the universe. “It is,” to quote Nicholas Sparks, “the best kind of love, the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.”
Beauty is something discovered in the blooming of a bright spring flower, the soothing taste of a Bavarian sugar cookie, or the plaintive words of a vicar’s eulogy. It’s something that exists all around each and every one of us. We simply have to open our eyes to see it.
