Beauty is Fleeting

“I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queen”. – Janis Ian

Life is unfair. Blessed are the beauty queen and woe to the “ugly duckling”. The world prefers beautiful people (except if you’re Andrew E, “humanap ka ng panget”). And it is not that I don’t consider myself in the category of beautiful people (pakapalan lang yan).

Magazines, movies, and TV shows are all full of beautiful people.  Research suggests that even babies prefer to look at a beautiful face. But like a flower, beauty fades. External beauty is fleeting. Here today, gone tomorrow.

Before the age of 20, if a woman is beautiful, she has her parents to thank for her innate beauty.

At the age of 30, and a woman still looks young and beautiful, she should be credited for maintaining her beauty.

At the age of 40 and a woman still looks young and beautiful, she can partly thank her husband for not making her grow old any faster (maybe I can claim some of the praise here).

After the age of 50 and the woman still looks beautiful, she can also include to thank her children for not making her age more than her real age.

At the age of 60, and a woman still looks young and beautiful, credit her cosmetic surgeon!

But there’s a beauty that does not need Botox injection, nor surgical scalpel to maintain. Beauty that transcends the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the hands and face. Beauty that is not judged by the eyes nor by the passing of time. Beauty that is within (and I don’t mean the intestines, the liver or the ‘laman-loob’).

I think you get what I mean.

“Sa paglipas ng panahon, maging crush ng bayan…. e nagmumukha ring pandesal. Maniwala ka.” – Bob Ong