Sunbonnet Soliloquy

By Jewell Ellen Smith

On Being Beautiful

Every woman alive wants to be beautiful. Or, at least I’ve never seen one who didn’t spend considerable time in front of the mirror, smearing on creams and ointments and paints and powder, combing and grooming her hair, and dabbing on colognes and perfumes.

No, I’ll take that back. Once I did have a 77-year-old friend who said she had “QUIT looking in the mirror ... I have a thousand wrinkles.” But she was beautiful, wrinkles, white hair and all. It was her smile, the light in her eyes, the lilt of her voice, and her philosophy of life which made her so.

This woman was stooped over, walking proof of this thought: “You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. But if you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your own soul’s doing.”

Now speaking of smearing on stuff to beautify the face, the other day the junk mail left in the box included an 84-page catalogue listing the “most excellent cucumber extracts,” hand lotions as smooth as silk (which were first sold to ladies in Paris in 1860), and countless other “unique aromatic formulations” and bath oils and herbs and ointments and balms and musks -- all guaranteed to enhance the natural beauty of the most discriminating woman.

Sounds great. But can you buy products that will actually make you pretty?

What about that old admonition that “Pretty is as pretty does”. And that saying that “Beauty is only skin deep”. And Shakespeare’s line that “Beauty is a witch, against whose charms faith melteth into blood”. And the verse from the Proverbs of Solomon that declares “Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised”.

A lovely lady from Huntsville, Alabama, told me recently that if a woman truly cares for other people, this kindness shows in her face. And an Enterprise friend added: “That means people of all kinds -- both high an low, don’t you think?”

I do think so. I believe, too, that if you are strictly a me-me-me person, that also shows.

Helen Keller (1880-1968), the great Alabama woman noted for her heroic accomplishments -- all achieved despite her blindness and deafness -- had something to say about beautiful women which is worth attention. It was this:

“Their ambition is physical perfection, and in its pursuit they are starving their minds and stunting their souls. The only truly beautiful women have well-stored minds, poise, strength for serious discussion and a gift of blending laughter with fragrance of the heart.”

So, girls, let’s be sensible. Give the face due care. Make it as pretty as possible. But at the same time let’s store up knowledge and courage and strength and compassion. Let’s not neglect the heart, mind and soul.

This thing we speak of as a woman’s beauty is not to be ordered from a catalogue and cannot be applied in front of the mirror. It is either in us or it is nowhere.

Published April 1985. Click your browser’s “Back” button to return.