“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.” – Aesop
This brings to mind the issue of ‘inner beauty’ being all that is really important. I don’t agree with it. My set response when I hear someone say that is ‘If God didn’t want us to care about outer beauty, he wouldn’t have given us an outside’. And I know, you are saying, ‘but Marty, you are an atheist, how can you say that?’ I can say it because the idea is true whether God exists or not.
We have an outside for a reason, we have concepts of beauty for a reason, we have attractions based on the visual for a reason. To pretend there isn’t any purpose behind that is absurd and not based on reality.
Having said that, I love this quote because while outer beauty does exist and is important at some level, if that is all there is then the ‘bird’ is not truly yet a ‘fine bird’. There needs to be a inside and outside balance, both must be developed with a goal of ‘fineness’, of beauty, of love.
Drawing and commentary © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
