The beautiful and the ugly

Ugly is a very ugly word that should never be used in the definition of one's looks because the real human being is not the body that you see but the soul or spirit that indwells it.

Let me put it in more graphic terms. The tortoise is not defined by its cracked shell but the humble harmless creature on the inside. And just as the tortoise shell is not the tortoise, the human body is not the real human being but a mere "designer shell", to use the words of Christian rapper Renee Emcee. Thus somebody's "designer shell" might be unattractive like tortoise shell but that does not make that person ugly. 

If beauty was defined in terms of looks, some of the world's most "attractive" women wouldn't be still single and struggling to attract or keep a husband. Likewise some of the most "unattractive" women wouldn't be happily married. 

It's sad that the beautiful-ugly phenomenon has been accepted in the world of women. Those who think they are not beautiful enough are doing everything to enhance their beauty to their detriment. In a quest for acceptance and validation from men, they have allowed to be used anyhow anywhere by anything. 

Then most of those who think they are beautiful enough have become inflated with pride; strutting about like peacocks, rejecting proposals from "lesser" men only to wake up too late! Others in this category often become too preoccupied with their "beauty" that they absolutely forget about their brains...to their detriment. 

If we want beauty, let's work hard to make the inner person better; if we must define beauty let's define it based on what comes  from inside out, not merely on what's outside. Paradoxically, you cannot become beautiful without first becoming U.G.L.Y., which is an acronym for "U Gotta Love Yourself", something I learned from Ugandan rapper Abbas Amin, who calls himself "Ugly Emcee."