You Look Mahvelous.

Have you noticed that my blog page is pink?

I embrace my femininity. I like to get dressed up every day. I keep my "face" in a makeup bag on the front seat of my car... just so I can do emergency touch-ups before I go home. Sure Tom sees me without makeup every day, but I think he should come home from work to something prettier to gaze upon over dinner. My own version of the "Feminine Mystique," I suppose.

We usually want to look our best, put our best foot forward, make a good first impression, etc. Men, too. Of course, this taken to extreme is vanity, a trait which God warns us is contrary to where our focus should be, on Him.

But I have no moral or ethical objections to someone wanting to look better. It improves their sense of self-worth or confidence. Clothing, hairstyles, makeup, plastic surgery, I don't see much of a difference except for risk and cost. I had plastic surgery in college to correct a muscle defect in my lip. It was one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me. If I had the money and the time for recovery, I'd correct my crooked spine, a result of Scoliosis, and get rid of my Quasimodo hump for the rest of my natural life. That isn't exactly plastic surgery, but it is deemed "cosmetic" since being twisted like a pretzel doesn't severely impact my health, aside from occasional back pain.

This all said, I do have problems with doctors who agree to perform unnecessary and drastic procedures on people who are not emotionally stable. (ie Michael Jackson, the woman who wanted to look like a Barbie, etc.) I also have problems with exploiting the patients of plastic surgery for ratings... in offensive television shows such as Extreme Makeover and The Swan.

And I am steamed about something I just read in The Lutheran, a magazine for people of the denomination. It said CosmoGirl has hired a Columbia University college junior, Colleen Taylor, to be the magazine's first-ever political correspondent. Ms. Taylor is a member of a Lutheran church in PA, not far from my hometown, so I kept reading. Ms. Taylor said, "Feeling like I'm making even a little difference by kind of showing these girls that politics is as much their world as it is their parents' has been really gratifying." Aww. This is nice. A college student gets valuable journalism and political experience while 14-year-old readers get info.

Then the kicker: "Although she doesn't get paid, she received a makeover and a professional wardrobe."

Are you kidding? Is the job about her journalism skills and political saavy or about whether her jacket style is this season and how short they should crop her hair? Puhleeez. Yes, put your best face forward, but the reward for your Columbia University education is a make-up lesson? The pay-off for years of perfecting a journalistic voice is a perfectly matched lipstick?

OK. She also got help with interviewing techniques and political knowledge. And her airfare and hotels were paid for covering the campaigns. But still.... a makeover? Why should I be dumbfounded, it is CosmoGirl, after all.

Nia Vardalos, the screenwriter and star of the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," talked about her shock when the reviews for the film came out. Reviewers wrote that the character got the man "after she had a makeover." Nia said the character, Toula, did NOT have a makeover. SHE MADE OVER her LIFE. She went to school. She became educated. She gained experience and as a result, self-esteem. These changes made her confident and open to a loving relationship. She didn't get a nose-job or perm and VOILA!, the cute guy likes her.

Looking our best is important in our culture, like it or not. But it is just that, looks. Superficial. Coverings. Masks. What counts is what is going on in the head, inside the heart. Unfortunately, our society doesn't look much deeper if it doesn't like what it sees at first glance.

For some people, the outside is all that matters, all there is. For others, changing the outside can help to repair what's troubling on the inside. And of course, it's what's inside that counts.

Yes, the three Graces are debating this issue.