LOOKING DIFFERENT-DOES BEAUTY COUNT?

What a touching news clip on Canada AM? A young woman with a facial deformity makes a difference. Intelligent but having lived a life where she stayed out of the public light. In her youth, she was criticized for her looks. She came forward to complain to a news network when they published pictures of deformed people from the Viet Nam war with a warning the pictures may be hard on viewers. She made them change it. Good for her! Is it time to embrace people who look different? What is normal? What is beauty? What makes a person ridicule another? If one just listened to her message, there was no difference. One of my jobs was working at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Many of my colleagues were totally blind so had no idea how I looked. The work relationship was based on personality and voice. It was rather different but good. Sometimes a new person would ask me to describe myself. What do you say? They had no concept of pretty, slim or svelte. Honestly they did not care! Our culture bases too much on looks. The handsome man has a better chance at a promotion! The beautiful woman gets the richer husband! What happened to  do the best with all your attributes? Now men are criticized if they do not marry a pretty woman! However a pretty woman can marry an ugly man as long as he has money! Have you ever noticed that a person's looks changes the longer you know him or her? Someone that was not so pretty initially becomes better looking if the kindness and warmth emerges from within that person! Have you ever found a beautiful looking person to become ugly if there was too much conceit and self-centeredness? Or the reverse? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Beauty is skin deep, is it not?