Pretty Face a Passport
This is from today’s A-Word-A-Day (the word for today is ‘machinate’) and you can subscribe by clicking on the blue type, above, which will take you to the website.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it’s not, it’s a visa, and it runs out fast. -Julie Burchill, writer and journalist (b. 1959)
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March 30, 2012 - Posted by intlxpatr | Tools, Values, Words
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This is WONDERFUL. I am sending this to my “tween” nieces immediately!!!
That’s why to the extent possible, I like to go for a pretty inside…now that’s a self renewing passport right there 🙂 I am a pretty poor judge of human character anyway, and in the past have chosen physical beauty and attractiveness i.e. the superstructure or the facade over what should matter, which is the foundation of a supertall.
Even today I need to pinch myself hard to remind myself to not go down that slippery slope. And time and again I keep repeating the same mistakes Have still got to learn to make peace with ‘ all that glitters is not gold’.Sad but true.
Slowly – tell them CHARACTER counts! I was pretty, growing up, but I also knew that it was a double edged sword. Like charm – it can get you in the door, but it’s short lived. If you can’t back it up with substance, you take a fall.
Expat – LOL, BL, we all fall for the exterior from time to time. I think somehow we are wired that way. We have to listen to that inner voice, the one you are talking about that tells us about the glitter and the gold. 🙂 Sometimes, we have to just tell ourselves to appreciate the beauty – from a safe distance 🙂
LOL I love it.
The one thing I find wrong with it though is the passport part, in that who says a pretty face is a passport? It seems that first part was used only to contrast with the second part of the saying. For me it lacks truth because I’ve never heard that before. Maybe it is common saying and it’s that I’ve never heard it, I don’t know,
Still, I think a more correct saying would have been something like “One may think a pretty face is a passport – it’s not. It’s a visa and it runs out fast.”
Also, I have to say that the outside matters too. I had a teacher come over to my place and the first time she came over the woman was completely disheveled. She took a comb out of her purse and started combing her hair in the mirror in the hallway while I was waiting for her. Her clothes looked like a mess and her socks didn’t match and she seemed just …. not teacher-like? Not leader-like? I don’t know. But it really put me off because I never got over that first impression.
I think another way of saying it would be a pretty face takes you places – like it opens the door. More like a tourist visa. But if you want to stick around – like a residence visa – you better have some substance to back it up.
Another saying is “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That saying agrees with what you are saying; appearances matter. But you are not talking about prettiness, you are talking about grooming, taking time to pay attention to details; the package doesn’t have to be pretty, just the best package it can be, if I understand what you are saying correctly, like presentable. No cat hairs, no threads on the clothing, no ladders in the stockings, no scuffs on the shoes, etc.
A person is born pretty, or not. A pretty face gets noticed, whether or not there is anything to back up the prettiness. There is only a limited window during which that attention lasts, however, and if you don’t have anything to back it up, attention fades and wanders. The visa runs out fast 🙂