The ‘Mask Girl’ uttered with fondness and poignance, ‘When I was younger, my dream was to become a celebrity. Nothing made me as happy as dancing onstage. The sound of people cheering and applauding made me, so, so happy… But eventually, my looks made it hard for my dreams to come true… (When as a kid): My dream? Uh… I wanna become a person that everyone loves very much.’
Such is the tragedy of superficial human judgement. You can be welcomed as a kid performing, but as you grow up, the more you do, the more are you kind of expected to look ‘good’ as a performer, whatever ‘good’ means. The next tragedy is when grown-ups do grow into such expectations and try to meet them, by hiding or even changing their looks. Does this not make life harder for the next otherwise up and rising star?
May we not base ‘thin’ and unsubstantial values on what is only skin deep, or rather ‘skin shallow’. May we cheer for wholesome talents, even if the talented are not as ‘spectacular’ as hoped for. May our sense of purpose and confidence be based on what is truly within our hearts and minds. May we not seek and take wrong refuges. It is with hearts of kindness guided by minds with wisdom, that we will become truly beautiful.
