First Impressions.

In our contemporary times, ones worth is determined by ones appearance. What comes in through the ear, is considered less remarkable. I've heard it said that people decide whether they like you or not in the first few seconds, and they are swayed either for or against you by your looks. This to me is ludicrous, superficial and senseless, but sadly, true. People always say that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but no single person in the world abides by this gallant guidance. It is sad to see the pains that people go through to establish and secure their self-image. So much time, energy and resources are wasted in an attempt to look appealing to society's eyes, literally! Those of us to whom appearances mean nothing know the persecution, misunderstanding and a million other consequences that result from this attitude. But the sad fact is that people are always staring, and never listening. People don't and will never understand that the ear is the avenue of the spirit, while the eye is always duped by mere seeming. The society is deaf. You can't change hoi polloi's mindset, the best you can do is learn how to live with it. I can't change it. All I can do is point it out. There have been others before me to whom this societal deformity has been a source of pain and disappointment. Ben Jonson in his brilliant poem 'My Picture Left’ expressed this disillusionment in sentences that glide and ballet across the lines and assonances flamenco style, creating space where there was none ... And what better way to sum it up than with the pain of despised love?
“I now thinke, Love is rather deafe, than blind,
For else it could not be, Whom I adore so much,
Should so slight me, and cast my love behind,
I'm sure my language to her was as sweet,
And every close did meet,
In sentence of as subtile feet,
As hath the youngest Hee,
That sits in shadow of Apollo's tree,
Oh, but my conscious feares,
That flie my thoughts betweene,
Tell me that she hath seene,
My hundreds of gray haires,
Told seven and fortie yeares,
Read so much wast, as she cannot embrace,
My mountaine belly and my rockie face,
And all these through her eyes, have stopt her ears."
In the world we are living in first impressions are highly regarded, but they are rubbish. People would be better off and much happier if they'd give up such a base and trivial concern.