WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2021 - The Blind loving the Blind

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2021

First a minor detour - my Grammarly statistics from last week.

I was more productive than 98% of Grammarly users

I was more accurate than 89% of Grammarly users

I used 95% more unique words than other Grammarly users

The “tones” Grammarly detected

Confident - 30%  (up 9% from last week)

Friendly - 21% (the same)

Optimistic - 13% (down 3%)

Informal - 9% (up 5%)

Disapproving - 8%  (up 8% - my goodness, I don’t want to be disapproving)

Admiring - 8% (up 3%)

Joyful - 6% (down 1%)

Note to self - I still make too many mistakes - especially with commas!!!

*****

It was seven years ago now.  I had been on an accreditation trip to Florida and was returning to Texas.  But, as happens, the flight from Tallahassee was delayed two hours and when I got to Atlanta (flying Delta), the flight back to Texas had left with no more flights until the next day.

Because it was a mechanical problem, we were put up in a hotel near the Atlanta airport, and given vouchers for food.  There was a young man -maybe in his mid 20s that rode the shuttle to the hotel.  We struck up a conversation.  He was from Watertown, South Dakota, and I had been at Dakota State in Madison for 18 years.   But, nobody was next to him on the shuttle.  I don’t know the exact issue, but the young man’s face was terribly disfigured.  Maybe he was born this way, maybe he had been in a fight or a fire or some other event.  

People shied away from the man because of his face.  His brain was good, he was smart, but people were avoiding him because of his appearance.  

I’ve thought of this over the years.  Do I shy away from a black person, from an ugly person, from a person of a distinctly different appearance than me?  While the adage is “birds of a feather flock together” and people and birds tend to allow only similar people into their social group.  

*****

There is a concept called “Lookism”

Lookism is a term that describes the discriminatory treatment of people who are considered physically unattractive. It occurs in a variety of settings, including dating, social environments, and workplaces.

This young man was hard to look at - honestly.  I was trying to befriend him for the short interaction on the shuttle bus because of the airline's mechanical problem.

I can only imagine the pain and separation that he has suffered through.  My brain is pushing me into statistics and in particular to bell curve analysis.  If you remember the bell curve analysis, there are very few people at either end of a large population.  In this case, maybe 1 or 2% are really beautiful on the outside. On the other end, 1 or 2% of the people are really ugly on the outside.  The bell curve suggests there are some nice looking and some not so nice looking people, and most of us are in the middle.

Now cosmetic people want to suggest we can improve our looks.  Ladies have had make-up for years, (I’m still learning some basic techniques).  There are those who can do amazing things with hair - from color to tints, to style; then make-up - blush, mascara, eyebrows, lipstick (we haven’t seen much of that for a year of mask-wearing).  

Then we have clothes that also can improve our looks.  As a male professor, I wore ties most days.   As a woman, my closet is full and as most women can tell you, I “just don’t have anything to wear” - which I think is for the specific day or event.  

[Aside, last Sunday I wanted to wear a red dress.  I have four red dresses, and I tried all of them on before deciding.  To me, some were too short (for going to church), I think senior women should have their knees covered; one was to blah - a nice red house-dress, but not a church dress.  

And, an additional note here.  Maybe 50% of my clothes have been given to me - women are very generous - then another 40% were from thrift shops, and the last 10% were things I really bought.

There was a television show “What Not to Wear” where the hosts took a lady and found clothes that changed her style and did make-up and it was a significant change.  

Back to the young man in the airport.  I don’t know his circumstances.  Maybe his appearance was from a recent accident and plans are being made to do some plastic surgery.  Maybe he doesn’t have the funds to do a major make-over.  

From Isaiah 53 we have this:

“There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”

From the body language of others in the airport, this young man was like that - nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance - a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.  

Back to life - LOVE WINS means loving everybody - beautiful or ugly.  Our exterior image is not our interior beauty.  

Note to me, I still need to work on LOVING everybody.  

HUGS!!!

Karen

May 26, 2021