Ugly Duckling

The image above was created by James Wheaton,13 years of age. He calls the image Ugly Duckling and says this:
"Description: One of my most expressive pieces. This is probably hard to understand for most people because I tried to express emotion through simple shapes and colors. But I'll explain it for you.
First, you may notice that none of the other spheres have a reflection of the red sphere, this represents the grey spheres shutting the red sphere out of their world so to speak. Also, the red sphere is bumpy and red because it's angry."

One of the stories handed me today to read in class was The Ugly Duckling. I had just started reading when one of the kids shouted, 'Teacher is ugly.' There was a murmur of agreement from the boys, and I felt the skin on my face redden. I looked up to see they were pointing and laughing at the Korean teacher. I assured her that she was not, and that the children were being really rude. Immediately I produced a précis, and allocated animals to those children who were making fun of the teacher. A pig, a dog, a cat, a rat, a crow - you get the idea - and then pressed the point home on how they all turned out to be wrong. The duckling turned out to be more beautiful than all of them. So much so even the duckling was suprised, and had to go and see a reflection to understand what was happening.

I still felt the Korean teacher felt stung. I was not content with my analogy, so I provided another. I said:

"You know I was first a swan. People thought I was a very cute boy and when I was older I had long blonde hair, and I had beautiful girlfriends. I'd say to a woman, 'Wow, you are beautiful', and she would say, 'Thanks, you are handsome too.' But then my hair fell out (according to my story) and then when I said, 'Wow, you are beautiful,' they said, 'Thanks, but you are bald.'
The Korean teacher packed up laughing, and had to hold her hand over her mouth to stop herself from falling all over the place.
I said,"In this story the ugly duckling becomes a swan, but I started off being a swan, and then I became an ugly duckling."
I took the joke even further, explaining that when I ran the marathon in Seoul, and the half marathon in Ilsan, people who saw me said, in Korean, 'Hey look, there's a harabohji (grandfather) running.'
That brought the feel good feeling back. I wanted to explain to them that even the most beautiful people shrivel up and die at some stage so it is helpful and healthy not to make beauty an ultimate assessment. But alas, we ran out of time.

Kids do sometimes stop in their tracks and scream pak pahgi (which I guess means bald guy). It used to annoy me but now I just notice how I feel. My level of agitation I think indicates my level of confidence. Lately I just make a joke or look above my head as if to try to see something, but occasionally I do yell at a brat, especially if they are just being loud and cheeky. Korean men, I think go out of their way to hide the fact that they are bald and I can see why. The kids, some of them, go beserk. It's like they've spotted Ronald McDonald.

Beauty is a big thing in Korea. Oprah got into trouble (over here) for commenting about the extent to which women here have plastic surgery (on eyes, noses, breasts and bums). There is a plastic surgery near my gym. If you asked me where I would find a plastic surgery in South Africa I'd have to plead ignorance. I've never seen one. In Apgujeong, a wealthy suburb in Seoul, I probably spotted five or ten in the two or three blocks surrounding the Hard Rock Cafe.

Wheaton writes about his image (above): this represents the grey spheres shutting the red sphere out of their world so to speak. We live in a world where most people are not gorgeous, so I am not sure why everyone adores gorgeous people who get enough adoration as it is. The interesting thing is you often find gorgeous girls (and guys) hanging out with ugly ducklings. This is because beautiful people can't help feeling threatened or antagonistic towards other beautiful (aka shallow) people.

Beauty is a metaphor, often, for truth, goodness, and innocence. You must decide what goodness is. Is it lines, and curves, features and colors? Because that definition fits in with beautiful foods - cakes, chocolates and puddings. They are a delight, a stimulus to the taste buds (the appetite) but the effect ends there.
The image Wheaton has made has a serious flaw in the sense that there should be far more imperfect, ugly spheres, and all the ugly spheres should contain reflections. Ugly people tend to be very introspective, very thoughtful. There should be one silver sphere, and it should be empty, unable to reflect, just to absorb, and feed.
http://www.uranther.com