Fourth Sunday In Lent
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle A
Object:
Theme For The Day
True beauty is only soul-deep.
Old Testament Lesson
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Samuel Anoints David As King
(This passage also occurs on the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time/Third Sunday after Pentecost/ Proper 6 in Cycle B.)
In this passage, the Lord -- tired of Saul's unrighteousness -- directs Samuel to examine the eight sons of Jesse, promising to tell him which one will be the new king. It turns out, of course, to be the young David. Samuel's secret anointing of him (secret, except for David's father and brothers, that is) amounts to the establishment of a government-in-exile. Samuel's mission is secret; he must pretend to be going to Bethlehem in order to sacrifice a heifer (v. 2). Samuel, by now, is a powerful and well-known prophetic figure. This is the reason for the village elders' discomfort at his sudden arrival (verses 4-5). In verses 6-11, an almost comic passage, Samuel examines the seven of Jesse's sons who are present, one by one, but receives the Lord's nod for none of them. It is not physical appearance that is the determining factor, the Lord tells Samuel, but the heart within -- the man's inner character (v. 7). Finally, Jesse tells him there is yet a younger son, David, who is off keeping the sheep. When he finally does look upon David, Samuel discovers that not only does this young man have the "heart" for kingship, but that he is "ruddy, and [has] beautiful eyes, and [is] handsome," besides (v. 12). David is, in other words, a paragon of rustic virtue -- the ideal figure to take over from Saul, who has grown overly fond of the opulent pleasures of the royal court. The Lord tells Samuel that David is the one, and Samuel anoints him as king. The Spirit of the Lord -- which, we will soon learn, has by now departed from Saul (v. 14) -- now "comes mightily upon David," and is with him from that day forward (v. 13). According to the characteristics of virtuous kingship identified in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, this young man, a diamond in the rough, appears to have the markings of a pious and excellent ruler.
New Testament Lesson
Ephesians 5:8-14
Children Of Light
This brief passage, snipped from the middle of a longer list of instructions for the Christian life, focuses on light and darkness. It is undoubtedly meant to complement the gospel lesson, Jesus' healing of a blind man. "Once you were in darkness," the author tells his readers, but now, "Live as children of light" (v. 8). Do not merely avoid "the unfruitful works of darkness," he continues, but "expose them" (v. 11). Darkness loves secrecy; but everything revealed by the light is, by its very nature, public (v. 13). This theme of darkness is further developed, later, in Ephesians 6:12, where it is portrayed as a vast, cosmic force for evil. How are Christians to prevail against such a force? Only with God's help -- for, "in the Lord you are light" (v. 8). Note the use of the verb, "to be": disciples of Christ become a source of light, in and of themselves, amidst a world of darkness. The song fragment in verse 14b is very likely from an early Christian baptismal hymn. Baptism is seen here as a little resurrection, by which the believer is raised up out of the darkness of death to receive the light of Christ. Romans 13:11-14 has a parallel theme.
The Gospel
John 9:1-41
Jesus Heals A Man Born Blind
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (v. 2). To modern ears, the question sounds insensitive at best, and cruel at worst -- yet, it was a common-enough perspective in the shame-based culture in which Jesus lived. Jesus' response sounds equally odd to us. He dismisses sin as the cause, but then goes on to say the man was born blind "so that God's works might be revealed in him" (v. 3). If we take him literally, this man has suffered blindness for years, simply in order that he might be a poster-child for Jesus' healing power -- although we can probably consider Jesus' words, here, as more of a rhetorical flourish. Jesus does indeed heal the blind man using a paste of mud and saliva. So remarkable is this healing that the man's neighbors have a hard time believing it at first. They end up hauling him in front of the Pharisees -- which moves the story from a simple healing to a rather comic confrontation over sabbath law (v. 13). Because Jesus made the mud-paste on the sabbath, the Pharisees are charging him with being a lawbreaker (v. 16). Could a man like Jesus -- who (according to them) takes sabbath law so casually -- also demonstrate God's power through healing? This thorny question sets up a certain cognitive dissonance in the Pharisees' minds. When they ask the blind man what he thinks, he just shrugs and says, "He's a prophet" (v. 17). This is unacceptable to the Pharisees, who go to the ridiculous extent of calling in the man's parents, to verify that, yes indeed, he was born blind (v. 18). "But don't ask us," the parents say. "Ask him: he can speak for himself" (v. 21). Verse 22 is one of those lamentable anti-Semitic remarks that sometimes occur in John's gospel; "the Jews" should not be understood as referring to the Jewish people, but, more narrowly, to certain oppressive religious leaders. When they again call in the former blind man, the Pharisees seek to discredit him, but he doggedly refers to the incontrovertible facts of what he has experienced (verses 24-33). In verses 35-41, the man returns to Jesus, who reveals to him that he is the Son of Man. In a final summation, Jesus declares the significance of the sign he has just performed: "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind" (v. 39). The worst sort of blindness, it seems, is spiritual.
Preaching Possibilities
Once a year, Americans have the opportunity to watch the Oscars -- the Academy Awards -- on television. Many of those who tune into that annual meeting of Hollywood's mutual-admiration society also catch one of the pre-broadcast "Red Carpet" shows. There's not so much mutual admiration there. The Red Carpet shows consist of entertainment and fashion reporters standing around with microphones in their hands, trolling for sound-bite interviews from Hollywood's elite, as they walk the red carpet between their limousines and the theater.
Those interviews are polite, for the most part -- but the same cannot be said for what comes after. Television viewers can just about hear the knives being sharpened as those interviewers wait for their next victim. After each celebrity has moved on, the reporters talk with the anchor person back in the studio, about what each star is wearing -- and most importantly, what each star looks like. That gown -- was it a Versace or a Donna Karan? The hairdo -- hot or not? You know, so-and-so put on a few extra pounds for that last role -- and I'm not sure they've come off yet.
All this may sound like mindless entertainment, were it not for the fact that many, many people pay it a great deal of mind. Lots of us spend plenty of time, effort, and emotional energy -- not to mention hard-earned simoleons -- trying to look more beautiful. Yet, all that time, effort, energy, and money is virtually guaranteed to be wasted in the long run.
"Wasted? How so?" Because -- barring some unforeseen accident or deadly illness, that snatches us away from this life in our prime -- all of us, as we age, are most certainly going to reach the point where we no longer look good (at least, not according to the Red Carpet ideal).
All the attention paid to physical appearance in our culture has a certain cost. That cost doesn't fall so much on the elderly. No, the cost of this obsession with physical beauty and attractiveness is being paid mostly by the young -- particularly the teenage girls and young women among us. When only a small portion of the population is considered "beautiful," what does that do for the self-esteem of the rest?
Today's Old Testament lesson addresses the question of what role physical appearance played in the selection of Israel's greatest king, David. The short answer to that question is: none whatsoever.
The story begins with the prophet Samuel, who receives a message from God to take up his horn of oil and anoint Israel's next king. The only problem is, the Lord doesn't tell Samuel exactly who the next king will be -- just that he's going to be one of the eight sons of a certain Judean farmer by the name of Jesse. Samuel travels to Jesse's homestead, assuming that he'll recognize the new king when he sees him. He doesn't. Seven sons of Jesse have already walked by him in turn. Not one has displayed that inscrutable aura of holiness Samuel figures will be just oozing out of the man God has chosen. "Is there no other?" Samuel asks.
"Well, there is little Davy. If he were a sheep, we'd call him the runt of the litter. We didn't even bother to invite him to the casting call. (We figured that would be cruel and unusual punishment.) Somebody so lacking in aristocratic refinement doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hollywood of becoming a finalist, let alone giving the acceptance speech."
"Send for him," says Samuel, doing a slow burn.
Of course, when David finally does come forward, he's not wearing a tailored robe, Gucci sandals, and pinky ring. His hands are calloused from gripping a walking-stick, and he stinks of sheep. Yet, this youngest son has a down-home, wholesome attractiveness. He's "ruddy," and has "beautiful eyes," and is "handsome." There is no contrivance about him. David is, as they say, comfortable in his own skin. And he -- not any of his more cosmopolitan brothers -- is the one God has chosen.
How does the Lord do it? How does the Lord select David? The book of 1 Samuel provides an answer: "The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (16:7). There's tremendous hope in those words, for those among us who are not accustomed to thinking of ourselves as "beautiful people." The Lord has not created us to be beautiful. The Lord has created us to be good. Not that we can always pull off that particular feat, sinners that we are -- but we certainly have within ourselves the potential to do good. The Lord sees that potential within each one of us, and honors it -- empowering us, if we but have faith, to perform deeds of kindness, caring, and justice such as we never dreamed we had in us.
We are also called to look upon others with the same sort of value-added vision that God uses in looking on us.
"The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Perhaps nowhere is this more true than at the Lord's table. To be invited to any of the sumptuous celebrations that follow the Academy Awards, you have to be dressed a certain way. You have to arrive in a certain kind of car. You have to demonstrate, if not physical beauty, then at least a scrupulous attention to the latest fashions.
None of this is true at the Lord's table. The fare is simple, but nourishing -- a far cry from caviar and Dom Perignon. All of us are welcome to come -- just as we are. The only requirement is that we have a hungry heart.
Prayer For The Day
Lord, we thank you for the delight of our eyes:
for the beauties of creation you give us to look upon.
We thank you for the sounds that thrill our ears:
music that inspires, words that encourage, the voice of our beloved.
We thank you for touch that brings comfort:
the encouraging hand on the shoulder, the enfolding embrace of love.
There is so much beauty all around us:
grant us discernment, so we may know it for what it is,
and may celebrate it when we see it in others. Amen.
To Illustrate
Shakespeare described the inevitable physical changes of aging in one of his sonnets as he addresses a young woman. He reminds her, in the poem, of her own mortality. This lovely woman is destined, one day, to become old -- or, at least, old according to the definition of that time (which was the age of forty):
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.
-- Sonnet 2
***
Comedian Bill Cosby makes a similar point but in a different way. In one of his monologues, Cosby remarks on how -- once he reached a certain age -- he began to hear his children start saying to him, "You look good, Dad."
"Strangely enough," he went on, "the older I get, the more often I look good; and therefore my handsomeness will reach its peak when they bury me."
***
Professor Joan Brumberg, of Cornell University, did a research study of diaries written by teenage girls. She first consulted surviving diaries from the nineteenth century, arranging the entries by topic. What Professor Brumberg found is that these nineteenth-century teenagers spent a great deal of time writing about their aspirations to be good, useful, caring, positive contributors to society. They had a sense of personal mission, something that caused them to reach beyond themselves.
Then, the professor turned to diaries written by twentieth-century teenage girls. She found their aspirations to be focused mostly on becoming slim, pretty, well-dressed, and popular.
These results are arresting enough -- but they're even more noteworthy, considering that they come forty years or so after the birth of the modern feminist movement. Many of us assume women in the nineteenth century were put-down, oppressed -- virtual slaves to their fathers and husbands. In fact, the Victorians seem to have done a better job than we of raising their young women to have a sense of personal mission and not to be so obsessed with physical appearance.
-- The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (Vintage, 1998)
***
David was "ruddy," with "beautiful eyes, and... handsome." What about some of our greatest presidents?
George Washington was physically strong, and -- at over six feet tall -- had an imposing presence. Yet, he wore a set of wooden false teeth that gave him tremendous pain and led him to adopt a grim, tight-lipped expression that made him look perpetually angry. Abraham Lincoln was well-known as being one of the homeliest men around. He had a huge mole on one cheek and was so tall and awkward that some historians think he might have had a mild case of the pathological condition known as giantism. Franklin D. Roosevelt spent much of his time in a wheelchair due to polio. In those pretelevision days, FDR's political handlers worked hard to keep newspaper photographers away from his wheelchair, crutches, and leg braces -- although, in this age of television, that level of protection would be unthinkable.
Yet, where would we be today, as a nation, without Washington, Lincoln, or FDR? The simple truth is, if today's obsessive interest in physical appearance had prevailed back then, none of these three men would have made it to the presidency.
***
There's a story worth retelling, from the old television comedy, All in the Family. Remember Archie Bunker, that curmudgeon of curmudgeons, and his ditzy wife, Edith? In one episode, the two of them are attending Edith's high-school reunion. Edith runs into an old classmate of hers, by the name of Buck. It happens that Buck, in his younger days, had been very handsome -- but now, decades later, he's put on a lot of weight and is no longer what anyone would describe as good-looking.
None of this matters a bit to Edith, who's having a great time visiting with Buck and laughing about the old days. Through it all, Edith doesn't seem to notice how extremely heavy Buck has become. Later on, when Edith and Archie are talking, she remarks in her whiny voice, "Archie, ain't Buck a beautiful person?"
Archie looks back at her, with his trademark curl of the lip, and replies: "You're a pip, Edith. You know that. You and I look at the same guy, and you see a beautiful person and I see a blimp."
Edith suddenly loses the smile from her face. She displays a puzzled expression that slowly turns into sadness. "Yeah," she says, wistfully. "Ain't it too bad."
True beauty is only soul-deep.
Old Testament Lesson
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Samuel Anoints David As King
(This passage also occurs on the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time/Third Sunday after Pentecost/ Proper 6 in Cycle B.)
In this passage, the Lord -- tired of Saul's unrighteousness -- directs Samuel to examine the eight sons of Jesse, promising to tell him which one will be the new king. It turns out, of course, to be the young David. Samuel's secret anointing of him (secret, except for David's father and brothers, that is) amounts to the establishment of a government-in-exile. Samuel's mission is secret; he must pretend to be going to Bethlehem in order to sacrifice a heifer (v. 2). Samuel, by now, is a powerful and well-known prophetic figure. This is the reason for the village elders' discomfort at his sudden arrival (verses 4-5). In verses 6-11, an almost comic passage, Samuel examines the seven of Jesse's sons who are present, one by one, but receives the Lord's nod for none of them. It is not physical appearance that is the determining factor, the Lord tells Samuel, but the heart within -- the man's inner character (v. 7). Finally, Jesse tells him there is yet a younger son, David, who is off keeping the sheep. When he finally does look upon David, Samuel discovers that not only does this young man have the "heart" for kingship, but that he is "ruddy, and [has] beautiful eyes, and [is] handsome," besides (v. 12). David is, in other words, a paragon of rustic virtue -- the ideal figure to take over from Saul, who has grown overly fond of the opulent pleasures of the royal court. The Lord tells Samuel that David is the one, and Samuel anoints him as king. The Spirit of the Lord -- which, we will soon learn, has by now departed from Saul (v. 14) -- now "comes mightily upon David," and is with him from that day forward (v. 13). According to the characteristics of virtuous kingship identified in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, this young man, a diamond in the rough, appears to have the markings of a pious and excellent ruler.
New Testament Lesson
Ephesians 5:8-14
Children Of Light
This brief passage, snipped from the middle of a longer list of instructions for the Christian life, focuses on light and darkness. It is undoubtedly meant to complement the gospel lesson, Jesus' healing of a blind man. "Once you were in darkness," the author tells his readers, but now, "Live as children of light" (v. 8). Do not merely avoid "the unfruitful works of darkness," he continues, but "expose them" (v. 11). Darkness loves secrecy; but everything revealed by the light is, by its very nature, public (v. 13). This theme of darkness is further developed, later, in Ephesians 6:12, where it is portrayed as a vast, cosmic force for evil. How are Christians to prevail against such a force? Only with God's help -- for, "in the Lord you are light" (v. 8). Note the use of the verb, "to be": disciples of Christ become a source of light, in and of themselves, amidst a world of darkness. The song fragment in verse 14b is very likely from an early Christian baptismal hymn. Baptism is seen here as a little resurrection, by which the believer is raised up out of the darkness of death to receive the light of Christ. Romans 13:11-14 has a parallel theme.
The Gospel
John 9:1-41
Jesus Heals A Man Born Blind
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (v. 2). To modern ears, the question sounds insensitive at best, and cruel at worst -- yet, it was a common-enough perspective in the shame-based culture in which Jesus lived. Jesus' response sounds equally odd to us. He dismisses sin as the cause, but then goes on to say the man was born blind "so that God's works might be revealed in him" (v. 3). If we take him literally, this man has suffered blindness for years, simply in order that he might be a poster-child for Jesus' healing power -- although we can probably consider Jesus' words, here, as more of a rhetorical flourish. Jesus does indeed heal the blind man using a paste of mud and saliva. So remarkable is this healing that the man's neighbors have a hard time believing it at first. They end up hauling him in front of the Pharisees -- which moves the story from a simple healing to a rather comic confrontation over sabbath law (v. 13). Because Jesus made the mud-paste on the sabbath, the Pharisees are charging him with being a lawbreaker (v. 16). Could a man like Jesus -- who (according to them) takes sabbath law so casually -- also demonstrate God's power through healing? This thorny question sets up a certain cognitive dissonance in the Pharisees' minds. When they ask the blind man what he thinks, he just shrugs and says, "He's a prophet" (v. 17). This is unacceptable to the Pharisees, who go to the ridiculous extent of calling in the man's parents, to verify that, yes indeed, he was born blind (v. 18). "But don't ask us," the parents say. "Ask him: he can speak for himself" (v. 21). Verse 22 is one of those lamentable anti-Semitic remarks that sometimes occur in John's gospel; "the Jews" should not be understood as referring to the Jewish people, but, more narrowly, to certain oppressive religious leaders. When they again call in the former blind man, the Pharisees seek to discredit him, but he doggedly refers to the incontrovertible facts of what he has experienced (verses 24-33). In verses 35-41, the man returns to Jesus, who reveals to him that he is the Son of Man. In a final summation, Jesus declares the significance of the sign he has just performed: "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind" (v. 39). The worst sort of blindness, it seems, is spiritual.
Preaching Possibilities
Once a year, Americans have the opportunity to watch the Oscars -- the Academy Awards -- on television. Many of those who tune into that annual meeting of Hollywood's mutual-admiration society also catch one of the pre-broadcast "Red Carpet" shows. There's not so much mutual admiration there. The Red Carpet shows consist of entertainment and fashion reporters standing around with microphones in their hands, trolling for sound-bite interviews from Hollywood's elite, as they walk the red carpet between their limousines and the theater.
Those interviews are polite, for the most part -- but the same cannot be said for what comes after. Television viewers can just about hear the knives being sharpened as those interviewers wait for their next victim. After each celebrity has moved on, the reporters talk with the anchor person back in the studio, about what each star is wearing -- and most importantly, what each star looks like. That gown -- was it a Versace or a Donna Karan? The hairdo -- hot or not? You know, so-and-so put on a few extra pounds for that last role -- and I'm not sure they've come off yet.
All this may sound like mindless entertainment, were it not for the fact that many, many people pay it a great deal of mind. Lots of us spend plenty of time, effort, and emotional energy -- not to mention hard-earned simoleons -- trying to look more beautiful. Yet, all that time, effort, energy, and money is virtually guaranteed to be wasted in the long run.
"Wasted? How so?" Because -- barring some unforeseen accident or deadly illness, that snatches us away from this life in our prime -- all of us, as we age, are most certainly going to reach the point where we no longer look good (at least, not according to the Red Carpet ideal).
All the attention paid to physical appearance in our culture has a certain cost. That cost doesn't fall so much on the elderly. No, the cost of this obsession with physical beauty and attractiveness is being paid mostly by the young -- particularly the teenage girls and young women among us. When only a small portion of the population is considered "beautiful," what does that do for the self-esteem of the rest?
Today's Old Testament lesson addresses the question of what role physical appearance played in the selection of Israel's greatest king, David. The short answer to that question is: none whatsoever.
The story begins with the prophet Samuel, who receives a message from God to take up his horn of oil and anoint Israel's next king. The only problem is, the Lord doesn't tell Samuel exactly who the next king will be -- just that he's going to be one of the eight sons of a certain Judean farmer by the name of Jesse. Samuel travels to Jesse's homestead, assuming that he'll recognize the new king when he sees him. He doesn't. Seven sons of Jesse have already walked by him in turn. Not one has displayed that inscrutable aura of holiness Samuel figures will be just oozing out of the man God has chosen. "Is there no other?" Samuel asks.
"Well, there is little Davy. If he were a sheep, we'd call him the runt of the litter. We didn't even bother to invite him to the casting call. (We figured that would be cruel and unusual punishment.) Somebody so lacking in aristocratic refinement doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hollywood of becoming a finalist, let alone giving the acceptance speech."
"Send for him," says Samuel, doing a slow burn.
Of course, when David finally does come forward, he's not wearing a tailored robe, Gucci sandals, and pinky ring. His hands are calloused from gripping a walking-stick, and he stinks of sheep. Yet, this youngest son has a down-home, wholesome attractiveness. He's "ruddy," and has "beautiful eyes," and is "handsome." There is no contrivance about him. David is, as they say, comfortable in his own skin. And he -- not any of his more cosmopolitan brothers -- is the one God has chosen.
How does the Lord do it? How does the Lord select David? The book of 1 Samuel provides an answer: "The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (16:7). There's tremendous hope in those words, for those among us who are not accustomed to thinking of ourselves as "beautiful people." The Lord has not created us to be beautiful. The Lord has created us to be good. Not that we can always pull off that particular feat, sinners that we are -- but we certainly have within ourselves the potential to do good. The Lord sees that potential within each one of us, and honors it -- empowering us, if we but have faith, to perform deeds of kindness, caring, and justice such as we never dreamed we had in us.
We are also called to look upon others with the same sort of value-added vision that God uses in looking on us.
"The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Perhaps nowhere is this more true than at the Lord's table. To be invited to any of the sumptuous celebrations that follow the Academy Awards, you have to be dressed a certain way. You have to arrive in a certain kind of car. You have to demonstrate, if not physical beauty, then at least a scrupulous attention to the latest fashions.
None of this is true at the Lord's table. The fare is simple, but nourishing -- a far cry from caviar and Dom Perignon. All of us are welcome to come -- just as we are. The only requirement is that we have a hungry heart.
Prayer For The Day
Lord, we thank you for the delight of our eyes:
for the beauties of creation you give us to look upon.
We thank you for the sounds that thrill our ears:
music that inspires, words that encourage, the voice of our beloved.
We thank you for touch that brings comfort:
the encouraging hand on the shoulder, the enfolding embrace of love.
There is so much beauty all around us:
grant us discernment, so we may know it for what it is,
and may celebrate it when we see it in others. Amen.
To Illustrate
Shakespeare described the inevitable physical changes of aging in one of his sonnets as he addresses a young woman. He reminds her, in the poem, of her own mortality. This lovely woman is destined, one day, to become old -- or, at least, old according to the definition of that time (which was the age of forty):
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.
-- Sonnet 2
***
Comedian Bill Cosby makes a similar point but in a different way. In one of his monologues, Cosby remarks on how -- once he reached a certain age -- he began to hear his children start saying to him, "You look good, Dad."
"Strangely enough," he went on, "the older I get, the more often I look good; and therefore my handsomeness will reach its peak when they bury me."
***
Professor Joan Brumberg, of Cornell University, did a research study of diaries written by teenage girls. She first consulted surviving diaries from the nineteenth century, arranging the entries by topic. What Professor Brumberg found is that these nineteenth-century teenagers spent a great deal of time writing about their aspirations to be good, useful, caring, positive contributors to society. They had a sense of personal mission, something that caused them to reach beyond themselves.
Then, the professor turned to diaries written by twentieth-century teenage girls. She found their aspirations to be focused mostly on becoming slim, pretty, well-dressed, and popular.
These results are arresting enough -- but they're even more noteworthy, considering that they come forty years or so after the birth of the modern feminist movement. Many of us assume women in the nineteenth century were put-down, oppressed -- virtual slaves to their fathers and husbands. In fact, the Victorians seem to have done a better job than we of raising their young women to have a sense of personal mission and not to be so obsessed with physical appearance.
-- The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (Vintage, 1998)
***
David was "ruddy," with "beautiful eyes, and... handsome." What about some of our greatest presidents?
George Washington was physically strong, and -- at over six feet tall -- had an imposing presence. Yet, he wore a set of wooden false teeth that gave him tremendous pain and led him to adopt a grim, tight-lipped expression that made him look perpetually angry. Abraham Lincoln was well-known as being one of the homeliest men around. He had a huge mole on one cheek and was so tall and awkward that some historians think he might have had a mild case of the pathological condition known as giantism. Franklin D. Roosevelt spent much of his time in a wheelchair due to polio. In those pretelevision days, FDR's political handlers worked hard to keep newspaper photographers away from his wheelchair, crutches, and leg braces -- although, in this age of television, that level of protection would be unthinkable.
Yet, where would we be today, as a nation, without Washington, Lincoln, or FDR? The simple truth is, if today's obsessive interest in physical appearance had prevailed back then, none of these three men would have made it to the presidency.
***
There's a story worth retelling, from the old television comedy, All in the Family. Remember Archie Bunker, that curmudgeon of curmudgeons, and his ditzy wife, Edith? In one episode, the two of them are attending Edith's high-school reunion. Edith runs into an old classmate of hers, by the name of Buck. It happens that Buck, in his younger days, had been very handsome -- but now, decades later, he's put on a lot of weight and is no longer what anyone would describe as good-looking.
None of this matters a bit to Edith, who's having a great time visiting with Buck and laughing about the old days. Through it all, Edith doesn't seem to notice how extremely heavy Buck has become. Later on, when Edith and Archie are talking, she remarks in her whiny voice, "Archie, ain't Buck a beautiful person?"
Archie looks back at her, with his trademark curl of the lip, and replies: "You're a pip, Edith. You know that. You and I look at the same guy, and you see a beautiful person and I see a blimp."
Edith suddenly loses the smile from her face. She displays a puzzled expression that slowly turns into sadness. "Yeah," she says, wistfully. "Ain't it too bad."
