Pretty plague

Sophie Haller

by Sophie Haller

Story

Beauty is like charm. Half innate, half learned. Not everyone has it, but everyone who has it can learn to use it.

I always liked to get compliments for my beauty. Scandalous, I know. Wouldn’t it be much more honorable to seek compliments for character and success? Beauty is superficial and fleeting – that’s what makes it a blemish. A golden stain on the napkin you dab your mouth with after dessert.

Beauty doesn’t matter – has this statement ever been spoken by a truly beautiful person? Or is it the ugly who take comfort in it?

Vanity, a term with negative connotations.

Modesty, a term with positive connotations.

But who are we to judge the perception of aesthetics?

Beauty is not considered desirable, yet it is a goal in everyone’s mind, a constantly present desire, a trap.

What would I have left without my beauty?

Is it cruel of me to ask the same question when I replace the feature?

What would I have left without my health? My legs? My ambition? My creativity? My love?

I am proud of my beauty that everyone sees.

I am proud of my love that only few feel. Do they know? That it is my love and not my beauty that makes me so desirable?

It is my love that makes me beautiful.

A secret that I hate to reveal. Because love is shared, it is given away. If I give away my secret, I risk losing my love to another person. Beauty stays with me, the only thing I could lose it to is its transience.

I’m afraid I’m too vain, too proud and selfish to give my love away lightly. So I stick to letting others enjoy my beauty.

It seems to be enough for them. After all, no one has ever complimented me on my love.

© Sophie Haller 2022-07-28