Last night a colleague and I enjoyed a wonderful evening at the theater. The production was Beauty and the Beast and it was very well done. I watched the movie with my daughter when she was much younger. It was actually a very significant and poignant fable for me years ago because I saw beyond the cute cartoon and great songs to a deeper meaning. I wish I could say that I identified with Belle (the beautiful but misunderstood, kind hearted damsel in distress), but I didn’t. It was the beast that captured my imagination. You see I adopted that fairy tale as my hope and guide. The challenge for the beast was to learn how to love AND to be loved in return and he would be released from the spell and reclaim his beauty. Do I have to say more? It supported the already ingrained idea that my release, the solution to my problems were held in the palm of someone elses hand. Now you know why my life has gotten so messed up.
Recently I saw another fable story made into a movie that I believe is more true to the heart. Penelope. Its the story of a girl who receives a family curse and is born with a pig face. To break the course she must find love. Now everyone, including me, interpreted this to mean get married. It was when she learned to stand up for, love and accept herself that the curse was broken. Now that is my new guide… sorta.
How do you think God approaches these situations? Inner verses outer beauty? Not that I have done an extensive search I do strongly suspect that God values the inner virtues far more then any out appearance. Think about it. What will the final judgement be? A beauty contest? I don’t think so! And those challenges and questions we receive before the throne — “Did you spend thousands of dollars on cosmetics and surgery to get the best you?” I don’t thing so. Both the virtues held up as our challenge and goals and the deadly sins we are to avoid have to do with our interior life. This outside is simply a shell. All unique and hold their own sort of beauty.
There is another thought or direction to go with in looking at both of these stories. We all are born with 
“warts” and “blemishes” in our lives; interior ones. Impatience, controling, undisciplined…. Both the beast and Penolope showed an outer manifestation of an inner troubled soul which made them “ugly”. Their challenge was to learn to love themselves, “warts” and all, — to learn to accept themselves so that others can see past their problem to the heart of who they are. Have you ever met someone who doesn’t like themselves? The way they walk, talk and carry themselves screams “I A LOOSER!” It takes a lot of work to get past that. I am learning that working to love and accept ourselves is parimont. Some are lucky to learn this in childhood while the rest of us have to struggle against a history of scars. Thats why there is another challenge for the rest of the world.
We need to stop celebrating physical beauty and holding up as the icon we seek to acceive in life. My daughter looks through a teen magazine and is bombarded with a thousand images of what she should look like. God forbid she should be 5 pounds overweight or have a zit on her face! Does God want us healthy and happy? Obsolutely! Is my being overweight a problem for God? Yes, I believe so in that it is an outer manifestation of an inner lack of discipline. I believe God calls us to live the fullest life we can and that means working on our inner virtues and vices which includes our outer challenges. But God does not love me any less because I don’t fit into a size 3 dress.
Let us love one another as God loves — simply because. I remain, your servant in Christ,
Theresa
