Everything Is Beautiful

Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Everything is beautiful in its' own way
Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter's day
Everybody's beautiful in their own way
Under God's heaven, the world's gonna find a way

There is none so blind as he who will not see
Ww must not close our minds, we must let our thought be free
For every hour that passes by, you know the world gets a little bit older
It's time to realize that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder

Everything is beautiful in its' own way
Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter's day
Ah, sing it children
Everybody's beautiful in their own way
Under God's heaven, the world's gonna find a way

We shouldn't care about the length of his hair or the color of his skin
Don't worry about what shows from without but the love that lives within
We're gonna get it all together now and everything gonna work out fine
Just take a little time to look on the good side my friend
And straighten it out in your mind

Everything is beautiful in its' own way
Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter's day
Everybody's beautiful in their own way
Under God's heaven, the world's gonna find a way

Ahhh! Remember the 70s? Remember Ray Stevens singing? Unfortunately, I do. Swaying with the kids choir, holding hands, wearing hot tights and tighter braids and singing baby, singing!

The line to which I protest the mostest? "Everybody's beautiful in their own way." My husband and I while watching the kids climb at the public park debated the premise of the statement.

My sweet, sweet hubby opined that eveyone is beautiful, that "there is someone for everyone" and that people should be graded by how they measure up to three levels:

1. Beautiful
2. Really beautiful
3. Drop dead gorgeous

After hurling on the green lawn, I said that there is one broad category of people and that is "ugly".

Even most Hollywood types are weird looking and forget Super Models. When you see them up close, they look alarmingly skinny with oddly proportioned faces.

The fact is, most people are ugly and most Hollywood people are just less ugly with good make-up and lighting. It is the rare person who is so breathtakingly beautiful that you go: when I die, I want to come back as her.

Secretly, in our dark evil hearts, we know the truth of this. It begins early. We delude ourselves from the moment our children are born saying usually out loud to the discomfort of everyone around, "Have you ever seen such a beautiful baby?" Uh, I don't want to devastate you sweetheart, but no and thank God for that.

Then, on the playground of life, we look at all the other ugly kids and look at ours and say inane things like, "Have you ever seen a child with such a beautifully proportioned head? I mean everyone elses kids heads are disproportionately large, but my child....ahhhh.... my child has the perfect head."

Anyone within earshot of this blind mother tries not to cough and choke and simply smiles blandly while looking lovingly at their far superior large-headed (full of brains, of course) off-spring.

The reason we think our squat-legged, squinty-eyed, perfectly proportioned-headed kid is so beautiful is that he or she looks just like, well, me! Vanity, all is vanity. The same women who will cluck-cluck in the mirror about pointy noses, thin lips, large foreheads, and sparse hair will wax radiant when describing the same characteristics in their children.

Proving my point, a raggy red-headed college kid with beard and twiggy, fawn-like legs who was a dead-ringer for the Mr. Tumnus character from Chronicles of Narnia attempted to play frisbee football and loped into view. I just looked at my husband and said, "See?"

Oh, he wasn't the only homely kid, either. In fact, I challenged my husband to pick one fine looking speciman from the whole rabble. He's still at the park earnestly seeking beauty.

Ray Steven's sang the real truth when he said, "It's time to realize that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder." Claiming that everyone is beautiful ignores reality. Like Syndrome says in The Incredibles, "And when every one is super, NO ONE WILL BE!"

As regrettable and disappointing as it is, everyone, save the very few, is ugly. Everyone, that is, except for my smart little pumpkin heads.