You go, Madonna!

Ok, I told myself to just shut up, but I can’t help myself. *sigh* I’m probably going to get run over by this little band wagon, leaving deeply spiritual tread marks all over my very human bod. But I just can’t help it.

It was something Madonna said. It was a quote presented on Facebook: “I want to be like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and John Lennon but I want to STAY ALIVE.” Oy. Here come the harsh words from those who presume to judge her.

Well, I’m just not climbing on that wagon. For one thing, I can find a certain dark humour in what she said. (My gift apparently, though I am quite aware that some could just slap me for it.) For another, I just happen to think that judging someone harshly just because they’re rich and famous is every bit as lame as idol-worship. And for yet another, I don’t actually know the woman. I mean, I’ve never met her personally, talked with her, hung out with her. I only know about her what’s reported in the media ~ not exactly the paragon of accuracy. (And no, I don’t indulge in the gossip rags.) Even if I did know her, who died and made me God that I should judge her and her aspirations?

Heh. Madonna is just human, like the rest of us. I’m sure she’s trying. I’m sure she stumbles. I’m equally certain she sometimes triumphs and has her glory moments. I also think she aspires to some lofty heights with her choices, but what’s wrong with that? Should we not aspire to greatness? Are we to assume it’s out of our reach? Ok, it could be argued that wanting to stick around for the standing O is a little self-serving, but on the other hand, which of us is looking forward to being shot, crucified, burned at the stake, drawn and quartered or whatever? Talk about a need for attention, if posthumously. Yeah, yeah... glory in spirit. Well I’m not going to seek out my assassin, I can tell you, greatness or no.

Madonna is a celebrity. As such she lives much of her life under the intense scrutiny of the media, where a lot of what she says and does may be deemed “news” at the whim of a sometimes misguided world. Yep, it’s part of the price of fame, but I bet it still makes life and making those choices all the more difficult.

So I’m cutting her some slack. I admire the people she wants to be like, for whatever reason. What we have here is just life on Earth for however long we’re given it. We are human, for the moment anyway. How we die isn’t supposed to be our choice; but how we live is. And whatever wisdom you aspire to, the reality of life before Enlightenment is chop wood, carry water; after Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.

Moreover, it’s only something Madonna said. As far as I know she didn’t carve it in a stone tablet and carry it down a mountain. Perspective. Tolerance. Humour. These are just some human qualities I admire. So, nope... maybe it’s an easy ride, but I’m not jumping on the judgement band wagon. You go, Madonna! Maybe one day you’ll get to be as admired as at least one of your heros, AND live to be very old. And in our world, you’ll likely get a standing O just for that. :)

True Human Beauty and Cliches

I was much younger and living in what seems now like another lifetime, when I learned the truth about human beauty. There are no pictures with this blog post, because I'm going to try to paint you a word picture, or two:

The students in the photographic college where I worked had been given an assignment to use their cameras to create an artistic nude. The resulting photos were used to construct a mid-term art show. I took the time to go see what the students had created.

Of course, there was photo after photo of pretty girls on the wall. There were some interesting poses, some partial nudes where the human body was made to look like some sort of landscape. Some of these were inspired and very artistic. Then, there amongst the pretty, young, mostly white women, was this older, very overweight, black woman, photographed in a frontal pose, sitting on the floor, leaning on one hand, her huge breasts hanging low like large sacks of dried peas. At first I was perplexed by the student's choice of model. She seemed incongruous amid all the pretty girls.

Then it clicked. Of course she was going to stand out ~ that was at least part of the idea. All the other photos could well have been of the same model for all I was aware. This photo was certainly going to get more attention than the others. It's the one that made me look again. And when I did, I saw something quite unexpected that I hadn't noticed at first glance ~ her eyes. This woman's eyes shone from the photo. They were so expressive, revealing her very life ~ her hardships and triumphs, her sorrows and joys, her hard work, her disappointments and heartbreaks, and the depth of love in her soul. It was all there in that photograph, and in that moment, I suddenly realized what human beauty was really all about. It had nothing to do with the pretty girls. True beauty is all about what is inside us. It was a lesson that certainly helped shape my view of life over the years.

This brings me to what I've learned about cliches. We hear them when we are young until we become quite bored with them. We yawn or wave a dismissive hand when someone speaks them. Calling something cliched is not intended as a compliment. When pondering this lesson about human beauty later, that cliche about beauty being only skin deep seemed limited and misguided forever after. Another about the eyes being windows to the soul took on fresh and profound meaning for me. I realized that many cliches became cliches to begin with because they contain a glimmer of truth, or at least something to make us think. It isn't enough to hear them. One must understand a few things about life before they have much meaning. If there was anything cliched in a bad way about that student art show, it was all the pretty girls. Regardless of the pose, the use of pretty models was merely predictable.

This happened 30 years ago, and now when I look at how our society has developed, I'm seeing this shallow rendition of skin-deep beauty take up more and more of our consciousness, with ads enticing us to hang on tenaciously to our youth by getting our breasts lifted or our kissers fixed, or "news" about what this beautiful person is doing, and which beautiful stars split up or got caught high/drunk/raving/cheating ~ all of this "news" taking the place of world events on our news channels. The world, far from becoming more beautiful, is becoming increasingly shallow, with the true beauty of humanity buried deeper and deeper in human tragedy, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and other hardships that scarcely interrupt news of who's been put in rehab lately. It makes me feel grateful, and privileged, for having even seen that photograph by an inspired young student. I never even thanked him or her for the lesson in beauty. So, if you're out there, thank you. When I got up this morning, I peeled off my jammy shirt, threw it into the laundry and walked into the bathroom naked. There in the mirror was an older woman, her breasts hanging low like sacks of dried peas.... but in her eyes, a life very much lived. I might have missed that and felt sorry myself, but for that photograph so long ago. Thanks again.