We are often surprised to find an acquaintance is a person of accomplishment. Nothing about their bearing has suggested it. With the exceptions of athletes, dancers and models, and others whose accomplishments are physical, and manifest in direct physical improvements in the way they look, we learn someone is accomplished only after seeing firsthand what they have accomplished, often amazed—we hadn’t a clue. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Financial success is unique in that accomplishment can only be communicated at the level of money, which is the symbolic level, by the display of luxury goods. Often the wealthy try to bridge the gulf between symbol (money) and character by adopting a haughty air. But the connection is so tenuous they only succeed in looking ridiculous to anyone who has a little critical distance.
What we can nearly universally assume is that each of us carries personal tragedy. It seems that in the course of a life it is inevitable. We can avoid the risk of sounding a little cheerless by saying that even failure to hold up to life’s tribulations draws the expressions into lines of courage. The ways we respond to life’s challenges are beyond count, and all this variety is apparent in our faces and our bodies.
The expressions of even the over civilized and the botoxed cannot escape the imprints of our condition, or the majesty of it, even in failure. But how could we continue, you and me, if not for the evidence of success. In faces. In gestures, bearing. Character. Maybe especially strong in those who deviate most, and suffer most in deviation from standards of beauty. The rigor and discipline of a successful and beautiful life.
With practice we can get better in inspiring others, letting our features and gestures speak for themselves, improve the quality of communicating the unique yet common quality of our character. And, perhaps more importantly, we can learn to be more responsive, sympathetic, empathetic, softening the scar tissue that holds us unique and separate so the slightest tilt or weight of expression will let someone communicate to us what they are uniquely dealing with. Naturalness.
The place of naturalness. The way there is unnatural. It is hazarded with artificial obstacles such as language and the uniqueness of personality. Today they have become indispensible obstacles, obstacles turned into stepping-stones. Or, perhaps the metaphor of place, and of journey is misleading. Perhaps the discipline we need is the discipline of acceptance. The craft of acceptance leaves lines and forms of character no less than the craft of gaining ends. It has its rigors no less.
Perhaps beauty is, being beautiful is living in means, in the process. Character developed in the moment. To suit the situation as it evolves. The most beautiful face is the most responsive face.
The naturalness of a child is a wonder to behold. So too is that of the aged, a true work of genius.
