Tag Archives: Curse

The Voice of an Angel – Grown Up

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It was at a fundraiser for KCET or some similar TV station many years ago that I learned about the – then – 13 year old Charlotte Church. I was amazed and even though I usually don’t think highly of fan-dom of any artist or star I ordered – to support KCET, you know – her CD and Video.

Recently I stumbled over her CD in my collection and I wondered what had become of her. Thanks to Google I found out quickly. Here is a before and after (so-to-speak)…

charlotte church then and nowAfter some more investigative work I found out that it is rather quiet around her now, the last album released dates back to 2005 and it is very different in that it went away from the opera repertoire she had before into the land of pop, where she has to face quite a bit of competition. I personally like her new music but it is not something that would get me up and buy her CD.

One of the songs on that CD gives an idea why she went away from the arena where she was so amazingly successful. The title is “Finding my Own Way,” where she tells her fans in poetic form, that they might disagree with her and that it might be a mistake, but that she has the right to make her own choices and possibly  mistakes and that that’s OK.

I believe that is a very honorable thing to do. There is the temptation of riding the wave of safe continued admiration and she has chosen a way that is not so safe but is her own. So, she does not fall into the trap I described when I mused about the curse of good looks.

For me the old and the new Charlotte are just two different worlds and I fortunately have the choice where I spend my time. I want to share one song I found on Youtube that is a neat combination of John Lennon, the master song writer, and Charlotte Church, a singer that can make my tears flow freely…

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The Curse of the Good Looks

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When my son was born there were some concern about his being OK. Especially his aunt had some concerns about the head being flat on the back and when that turned out to be no problem another possible problem was found that he possibly had too short legs.

That also turned out not be a problem, so neither does he have a flat head nor dwarf legs, but instead it soon became apparent that he was a very good-looking boy. Soon the word was that he will be a heart breaker and that the girls once will follow him in hordes.

All that turned out to be true and I have seen several females of all ages fall head over heal for him. On top of his looks he also has that James Dean gene in him that can be another nail in the coffin for any female with the matching gene. Just look at him…

good looking boy

From the very beginning I held, contrary to pretty much every body else’s belief, the opinion that these good looks are a curse rather than a virtue. Why would that be? Everybody will love him, even if only for his looks, right? True, but for how long?

An additional element is that he will not learn basics form of human interaction. He will not have the need to learn to put his best side forward – because it’s already there. Just as somebody blind will develop a much sharper sense of hearing, so does an ugly person learn the skills to be accepted and/or liked by others.

But just as a person with very good vision does not have the need to develop good hearing, so does the very good-looking person never develop the need to show interest in others, feel compassion and become a ‘nice’ person.

Now enter another deadly ingredient into the mix – shyness. This will cause a fallback onto the safest methods of being accepted – the looks. This will become more and more important. On the heels of the looks follow other forms of status, money, being popular and other totally irrelevant subject if you are looking for a goal of happiness and spiritual fulfillment.

This is a mechanism very similar to the dead ends of the path to enlightenment as described in the article Bad Enlightenment. A prime example for this deadliness of this mechanism is the big number of dead or messed up movie stars from Hollywood. They could (and do) have it all but then, as in the case of Marilyn Monroe, they leave the current plane because they can not stand their superficial existence any more.

But what can be done about all that?