There Is A Penalty For Leaving
Watch full screen with sound on, please
Imagine showing up to a hotel, exhausted and weary from travel. You get the key to your room and open the door to find the maid there, tidying up, fluffing pillows, adding the final touches for your stay. She smiles. She seems friendly.
But after she leaves, you notice things are just a bit off. The towels are a deep red, the color of blood. An array of bandages sit on a shelf in the bathroom. The sheets are ice cold. The chocolates on the pillow are already unwrapped. And “Hotel California” plays on an endless loop through an unseen sound system.
Tired, you get ready for bed. All that matters is that you get a good night’s sleep. The maid appears to “tuck you in.” Just one of the “special” room services the hotel offers. She turns out the light, but you never hear her leave.
Your sleep is tortured by nightmares. You toss and turn. Then, you’re awakened by a piercing scream down the hall. That’s it, you’ve had enough. You get dressed, pack your bag, and get ready to leave.
The maid is standing in the hallway as you shut your room door behind you. “There’s a penalty for leaving early,” she says. Then she smiles in a way that ignites fear throughout your body. Your mind says run but your feet won’t move.
Don’t worry, it’s just a dream. Maybe.
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What Is Beauty
There Is More Than What The Eye Beholds
The old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is, to put it nicely, nonsense. First, some people wouldn’t recognize beauty if it came up and slapped them hard in the face, and most of those people deserve just such a slap. Second, beauty is not static. How it appears to us one time may not be the same as the next. I chose a fast-paced video this week because I want to emphasize just how quickly beauty moves through our lives. One moment it is there, the next it is gone.
Perhaps most important, though, is that beauty cannot be defined because it is never, ever, limited to a constant state. The natural ebb and flow of beauty mean that we can never nail down what it is or isn’t. Not only can we not trust our eyes, but we also can’t trust our emotions, our instincts, or our experiences. What we may see as beauty now may prove to be something quite different to our grandchildren. Likewise, what we find distasteful may, but future standards, be astonishing and lovely.
Ray Stevens once sang a song that was the heart of inclusivity. “Everything is beautiful, in its own way,” he sang in 1970. The song was inspiring and it made Ray Stevens a very popular and a financially prosperous individual. Ray’s right-leaning political views of the past few years have caused him to seem not-so-beautiful to a lot of people, though. Did he change, or did our view of what’s beautiful?
When I come across people I knew growing up, a lot of them say, “Wow, you’ve changed. What would your parents say?” I assume they think my parents wouldn’t approve of some of my actions and my liberal attitudes. I know my parents, though, and whether or not they approved of what I say or what I do, they would still love me. They would still find me beautiful.
Beauty, as the video says, is form. Beauty is substance. Beauty is the essence of nature and the fragrance of love wrapped in a single soul. The young woman in these pictures is beautiful. So are you.
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