Beauty Or Brains

Given a choice, what would most people choose: beauty or brains? I suspect the winner may be "beauty". Why? Beauty seems to go farther than brains. You can have a pile of knowledge that works well but if there isn't some beauty mixed in to make it more palatable, even it has limits. Those who are deeply into the matter of being learned and ready to regurgitate their collected wisdom at the lecture stand, are often those who have some sort of visual appeal. If they are not beautiful, they are interesting looking. If they aren't attractive they do everything they can, to be so. I can think of one particular university lecturer woman from whom you might run at dusk if you met her on the street, but who wore the most elaborate fashions that her students were fascinated. Every talk had a different costume.  A deadly dull looking and speaking professor, ought to be a bit fetching in some way to keep the students awake. In the  broader world, presidents and royalty know that appearance is important and have whole crews hired to make them beautiful or as close to it as possible. There are a very few examples of famous folk who are downright homely and not much can be done for them to help the situation.  I can think of one in particular, but wouldn't dare say the name. I think you know what I mean.  Television personalities and movie actors - they are much similar - seem all to be quite lovely even the quirky ones. The truly uglies do the character roles. We all love to look upon beauty. Babies are  beautiful apart from one I once met during my babysitting days, whose name was Barney. But that's another tale. Babies have perfect small faces and flawless skin and their eyes are naturally very large in their little skulls which is one sign of ideal beauty. What happens when they grow up and change is quite another thing. Noses grow and chins form and the whole pretty baby aura often turns out a rather plain result. Billions have been spent on trimming proboscises and reducing flabby cheeks and sagging skin. All in the name of beauty. Or vanity? And what department in the store is most active? It is the make-up, perfume, soap and shampoo section. Beauty or the seeking of it beats out brains every time. The ironic bit is that most of the products and procedures that go into the beauty business come from the brainy people who don't care a fig about their appearances. They slave over microscopes in labs or surgically trim bits of skin or stir up gooey mixtures to apply to wrinkles or spend hours meticulously stitching lovely garments or stand all day working on the hair of others or clipping their toe and fingernails. I take my hat off to them. They are the truly beautiful people in my book.