Sunbonnet Soliloquy

By Jewell Ellen Smith

Think of Yourself as Beautiful

“If you want to dance beautifully, think of yourself as being beautiful!”

This was the first admonition Lori Kresho offered nine of Fort Rucker’s most accomplished dancers the day they began rehearsing the dance they will do in our Christmas play, THREE DREAMS AND A DANCE.

The play will not be staged until December -- it’s part of the Post-Wide Christmas Dinner Theatre program set for 17 December -- but week after week as Lori and Betty Tillery (Madam Hodesh, in the play) and the other players work on their lines and routine and pretend that they are Near East dancers in Biblical days, they must think “beautiful” again and again.

That’s good advice. For anybody. Any time.

The other day I was about ready to go jump in the lake because I could imagine myself an old, wrinkled, dried up, wart covered, pop-eyed frog.

How did I get to thinking that? From reading the first paragraph in some pamphlet lying around the house. It went like this:

“Ever feel like a frog? Puffy, drooped, pooped? Leaping high once in a while but not getting much of anywhere?”

It didn’t seem sensible to read the rest of that piece.

Of course now, in the fairytale about the wicked old witch turning the unfortunate young prince into a frog, a lovely princess soon comes along, kisses the frog, and changes him back into a handsome young king-to-be.

Fairytales can carry double meanings. Could it be that in this one the wicked old witch’s real name is Inferiority Complex, and that as such she can slyly cast a spell on any person?

She can. Any of us can get to feeling down, of little worth, very un-beautiful. But don’t do it. Don’t dare think of yourself as a horned toad -- or any other ugly creature. Think of yourself as being beautiful -- as Lori told the dancers.

Those nine players, who in the Christmas play are the Hodesh Dancers, a troupe of professional dancers in the city of Jerusalem, are already good looking --even in their blue jeans.

And on the night of the performance when they first come swishing on stage in their veils and harem pants (this, at the demand of the evil King Herod) they will look great.

But, oh my, when they finally get to dance before the Christ Child, and bow down before Him in adoration, they will look absolutely magnificent. Because, the dance is their gift to the Holy Babe -- the best, the most wonderful, and, the only thing they have to offer Him.

When you give to another the best that you have -- or the best that you can do -- that, too, will make you beautiful. Especially, if you do it in the name of Him who made the world and all things in it -- including you.

When you think of yourself as being beautiful, you are dealing with the truth, not a fairytale.

It is when you accept your own beauty and worth and are willing to give to others that you become beautiful.

See elsewhere on this website for the Christmas play, ‘Three Dreams and a Dance.’ Published November 1981. Click your browser’s ‘Back’ button to return.