It is strange to me how some people can be so physically beautiful but so very ugly inside.
example of exploitive excess…
Most days I try to “post and ghost” to my social media pages. It is wayyy too easy to get drawn into the rabbit hole and find myself lost in Wonderland for hours. That dopamine hit is real….but as a rule, my algorithms bring me to pages that are uplifting or educational. So I stay a little insulated from the ugliness of the social media world.
But today I got distracted by the photo on a particular story. It was unexpected and had a great 70’s artistic flair, so I clicked on it to see who the artist/originator was and an hour later shut my phone down, feeling heartsick and shaky.
The artist was a Hollywood personality. They were physically beautiful; high cheekbones (implants) full (filled) lips, wide, slightly slanted eyes and so, so thin.
But their profile, and every profile that I clicked on that was connected, was filled with pictures of excess, nudity, exploitation, meanness in the guise of “art” towards anyone who was “less than”, and that seemed to be everyone who didn’t come from money or was a member of the society elite, from the blue-collar worker to the very poor.
It made me incredibly sad to see such meanness from any human – and I know that the poor, blue collar, or middle class are just as capable of cruelty and pettiness as the bourgeoisie and do not in any way believe money is the “root of all evil”, but the extent and scope of this person’s (and the Hollywood elite they were connected to) and lack of empathy towards other humans struck me particularly.
I understand the psychology of cruelty.
A lack of compassion and empathy for others can almost always be traced back to low feelings of self-worth within oneself; likely programmed by parents or caregivers who didn’t know better, themselves. Too often our parents teach us the lessons of “greater than” and “less than”, because it was what was taught them. So from an early age, we try to puff ourselves up and make others smaller – because we feel empty and lacking inside.
I have experienced this in my own life on many different levels. My own (upper class) grandfather (mother’s father); himself an alcoholic and a deeply unhappy, abusive man, rejected me as a young child because my father was only “middle class” and therefore from the wrong side of the tracks. Thankfully, my grandmother was not quite so snobbish and loved me unconditionally.
Ironically, as he lay dying after months of terrible pain from prostate cancer, he took my hand and said “Terah, be good.” I think I was only 11 or 12 years old at the time, but I could feel the regret and despair in his emotions, and knew that what he was saying was “do better than I did”. I am not sure that I inherited whatever gene it may be that gives one the predisposition to be cruel, but the lesson definitely stuck and likely influenced my future behaviors and actions.
Ultimately, cruelty and meanness is ugly, petty, and small. Though superficially, it may make us feel bigger to be “better than”, or feel as though by cutting down or diminishing others we make ourselves more grandiose, but ultimately, this superficial largess is subtractive to our spirit and the deeper self. It is a well that just keeps getting deeper. It disconnects us from others, from nature, from Source, and reality itself.
Conversely, when we tap into our kindness, our courage, our wisdom and love, we are connecting to that deeper aspect of ourselves – our Divine nature, our Sacred Self; our Spirit that is connected to All That Is. We are all cells in a huge body, and no one cell is more important or valuable than another. The king is no more important than the peasant, the merchant no more than the homeless man on the street.
We all have a role to play in this life, but the question is, how are we choosing to play the game? Are we playing with kindness, fairness, and integrity, or are we the mean kid on the playground, pushing everyone else around and caring for no one but ourselves?
At the end of our time on this physical plane of reality, will we have a sense of the kindness we gave in the lovely shared with others, or will we regret the way we live our lives?
I don’t personally believe in the idea of hell, but I do believe that some part of us always knows if we are living well, or terrified of dying for what might come beyond. I believe our minds are capable of creating “hell” for ourselves without the need of a physical place of fire and brimstone; complete with little red men wearing tails and carrying pitchforks…🙄.
I know when my time comes, I want to know that I lived a life that felt meaningful. That I left the world a little better than when I arrived. That I helped others to love better, to live better, and perhaps to more deeply value the beauty that is this life.
What are your thoughts? I would love to read some other folks’ views on this.
Big love.💖
This Blessed Sacred Life 