Is a smile essential? part 2

Last post I ask how far you would go for a decent smile and why it is more acceptable to pursue a good smile over pursuing other corrective treatment for other parts of our body.

I have been trying to work out what the framework and principles that help guide decisions about cosmetic surgery. I found myself stumped when I was confronted to explain the difference between the dental implants I had to correct my smile and the surgery of a friend who got breast implants.

I often excuse my teeth based upon mechanical and health reasons. My brothers and I each have a lack of teeth due to a genetic condition which each one of us have now received cosmetic treatment for. I had missing lateral incisors, very pointy canines and remaining baby teeth. I didn't have a great smile and if I am honest with myself vanity was a major player in getting my teeth corrected. I really wanted to be able to smile confidently! To which most people tell me 'fair enough'.

So what do you say the the young woman who has a AA bra cup size and sees herself not as womanly but as girly? What do you answer her when she tells you she wants breast implants to feel and look like a woman, to fill out a bra and just look her age instead of a 12 year old girl when she stands in her bikini on the beach? Is she allowed to correct her breasts like we correct our teeth? Do you have double standards?

I feel it is far easier to excuse vanity when it comes to teeth. We too easily embrace the "Hollywood smile" as the norm and benchmark for our smiles. Braces and corrective dentistry is so very popular and very socially acceptable. In fact the majority of people today will experience some sort of corrective dentistry.

Is a smile essential?

If you google the phrase “importance of a smile” you will find many people telling you just how essential a good smile is.

The Dali Lama apparently says that he would be a much lonelier man if he did not smile so much. He thinks this simple physical act has brought him closer to people from all walks of life.
A Patchwork & Quilting blog gives 12 reasons of why a smile is important in your quilting world: it makes you feel better, you can hear a smile in your voice and often a smile gains one in return.
Humor Specialist John Kinde says a smile is the number one feature that makes people attractive. It's a welcome mat. It's what makes folks approachable. People with a great smile radiate a warmth that draws others to them instantly.

And to be honest I agree... An individual's smile can say a great deal. A warm smile and a friendly handshake are often thought to be essential ingredients to a successful professional. A great looking smile could also be the spark that attracts an important relationship.

But what do you do when your smile reveals a rotten, missing, stained or chipped tooth? According to Smile Essentials Dentists your smile is essential and if you don’t smile as well as you should improve the beauty of it. Don't settle for anything less, shop for a new one! And we do!

How valuable is this essential smile? Or is the question better phrased how much do we value and think we each deserve the Hollywood movie star smile?

I have been wondering how easy it is to excuse our vanity and idolatry when it comes to teeth. Why is it socially acceptable to have have cosmetic work to one part of your body and not another?

(This too I guess goes for make-up, hair dye, hair styling products that we use to enhance parts of our body.)

Important Events...

What would you consider to be some of the more important local, national and world events?

eg. Olympics, Christmas, World's Biggest Morning Tea, Big Day Out, National Sorry Day, World Cup, World Smile Day... etc!

Fun |ˈfən| noun

A bill poster on the streets of Glebe.

What's normal in culture?

This week my friend accepted a job with Playboy International, as an interior design intern for their New York bars and nightclubs. Another one of my friends is growing in reputation as a burlesque dancer who is fusing the modern and traditional styles. And most of my other friends who work in more ‘normal’ jobs would probably say they are happy for these friends – they are pursuing their dreams, getting good money and having fun. What can be wrong about that? I like seeing my friends happy too, and I am excited that they are accomplishing goals and having fun, however I can’t quite reconcile why happiness is found in working for an industry that feeds the objectification of women and that normalises sex as a commodity.

When did we accept synonymity of sex with red, black and naughty? And why do we construe violent, abusive and pornified images, as the norm for sexy? Our ears are blasted by the advertising jingle for a popular male deodorant, which uses Bom-Chicka-Wah-Wah, the onomatopoeia guitar riff from porn movies of the 70s. This has even provided inspiration for the single released comprising of these lyrics:

“what if in the morning there is guilt and regret? Better than another night watching TV with you pets”

We watch, laugh and usually pass-over the unhealthy concepts of relationships, image and sex promoted. But for how long shall we concede? What are our boundaries? The pornification of culture has even crept into the children’s clothing market whereby ‘bust-booster’ bras are manufactured for girls as young as three. Additionally, the Peek-a-boo pole-dancing kit marketed for six-year-old girls promised, “to unleash the sex kitten inside”.

Am I just the fuddy-duddy, Jesus-loving, old-fashioned and conservative Christian friend? Do you think, as the apostle Paul does in Ephesians 4, that our society has lost all sensitivity?

Then again, should we even be surprised that there are no objective moral norms, given our society holds no belief in an objective moral-norm-giver.


they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. ephesians 4:17-19

Sex and the City

Things the movie illuminated for me:

• Shoes make me happy!
  
• People hurt people.
  
• Forgiveness is hard.
• Humans like the words "I", "me", "my" and "mine".
  
• Friends are a true blessing.
• Love can stink.
• Families are out of fashion.
• Lonliness isn't nice.
  
• People want to be loved.
• Broken relationships are painful.
  
• Macs are cool.
• Love brings great joy.
  
• People want to live life their own way.
  
• Marriage is a good thing but misunderstood by many.
  
• Children are a miraclous gift.
• People ignore God.

Running to the battlefield...

My brother emailed this quote to me today.
It struck a cord with me...

“… Are then Christianity and culture in a conflict that is to be settled only by the destruction of one or the other of the contending forces? A third solution, fortunately, is possible—namely, consecration. Instead of destroying the arts and sciences or being indifferent to them, let us cultivate them with all the enthusiasm of the veriest humanist, but at the same time consecrate them to the service of our God. Instead of stifling the pleasures afforded by the acquisition of knowledge or by the appreciation of what is beautiful, let us accept these pleasures as the gifts of a heavenly Father. Instead of obliterating the distinction between the kingdom and the world, or on the other hand withdrawing from the world into a sort of modernized intellectual monasticism, let us go forth joyfully, enthusiastically to make the world subject to God. …

There are two objections to our solution of the problem. If you bring culture and Christianity thus into close union—in the first place, will not Christianity destroy culture? Must not art and science be independent in order to flourish? We answer that it all depends upon the nature of their dependence. Subjection to any external authority or even to any human authority would be fatal to art and science. But subjection to God is entirely different. Dedication of human powers to God is found, as a matter of fact, not to destroy but to heighten them. God gave those powers. He understands them well enough not bunglingly to destroy his own gifts. In the second place, will not culture destroy Christianity? Is it not far easier to be an earnest Christian if you confine your attention to the Bible and do not risk being led astray by the thought of the world? We answer that of course it is easier. Shut yourself up in an intellectual monastery, do not disturb yourself with the thoughts of unregenerate men, and of course you will find it easier to be a Christian, just as it is easier to be a good soldier in comfortable winter quarters than it is on the field of battle. You save your own soul—but the Lord’s enemies remain in possession of the field.”

[Quote taken from D. G. Hart’s, J. Gresham Machen: Selected Shorter Writings (P&R, 2004) 399-4??.]

Father Bob...

On my way home from church Father Bob and special guest (don't know who, sorry!) were discussing the ethics of suicide/euthanasia, on triple J.

The special guest asked:
Show me in the bible where God says that we should expect and deserve suffering? you can't can you... God doesn't want us to suffer. We deserve a choice.

Now this question wasn't answered... they just kept talking. Shame!

Then Safran asked Father Bob: now you worship a God who killed himself?

Tough Question.

Answers? Where would you start?

Art?...

http://guillermohabacucvargas.blogspot.com/

PetitionOnline.com - is a pretty interesting concept in itself!

I know I like shoes but...

not so sure of these ones... apparently the latest craze in Japan!

May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead...

83-year-old Sidney Lumet's new movie is out: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead...

The advertised premise for the movie is:
When two brothers organise the robbery of their parents' jewellery store the job goes horribly wrong...

Margaret and David both gave it 4 stars!
I'd give it hmmm... 2 or 4 stars... not really sure!

The fractured sequence of events allowed for the building up of ethical tension in the viewers mind. The storyboard provoked me to think about the nature of the events being payed out in front of me... I kept asking myself "do desperate times call for desperate measures?" "how far would I go?" " why would you kill for $60,000?" I think the layers of scenes, flashbacks, although at times seemed to overlap, it provided time for my mind to ponder and grapple with the theme. I think the fragments and going back in the plot also raises the question of "if I could do it over, what might I do different?"

It was a bit slow because of what seemed repetition... but it was confronting, intense and thought provoking. My friend asked me after "what did you think? intense hey?" I replied "Do you reckon desperate times call for desperate measures? He replied "do you really reckon their situations were desperate?" Interesting question!

The other intensity was the nudity throughout and the explicit sex scene that opens the movie and pretty much smacks you in the face. My friend who I went with, he whispered to me "ohh this is a bit full on"... which at that point I didn't know how to respond so I just shrugged and kept watching! Don't think that was the best response at the time but still don't know what the best response would have been.
________________________________________

Can I leave you with 2 questions:

1. What would make you walk out of a movie? sex scene, boredom, drug taking, blasphemy...
   
   
2. Desperate times calls for desperate measures... how do you get to the gospel from that?
   

Chekhov, Gorky & Strindberg (Sex, Lies & Samovars)...

2nd Year Actor's Centre company presented the above tonight! I went to see a friend who was performing and ended up bumping into two old uni mates - I enjoyed!

Stand Out Quotes of the Night:

from 'Scenes from Philistines by Maxim Gorky'
Adaptation by Andrew Upton


Opinions don't like to be silent



from 'Scenes from Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov'

ASTROV: And when they don't know what label to stick on my forehead, they say "he is a queer fellow, very queer!" I am fond of forestry - that's queer!
___
SONYA: I am not good looking. YELENA: You have beautiful hair.

_________________________________________________________

Watching these plays has made me want to read some more Chekhov! He has amazing wit and insight into life: a wasted life. Which is I think is what I saw as the linking theme between each snippet of plays by the three Russian playwrights...
the meaninglessness of mores, the valuelessness of wealth and the fruitlessness of unrequited love.

What also impressed me is the clear shared culture of the plays (1888-1902?) with that of our own: sex, lies, broken relationships, pursuit of wealth, fortune and a name (oh not to forget tea - we all love a cuppa!).

Insert Jesus instead of baby...

I think Alicia Keys has great insight into what motivates us & what we allow to define us...

Mmmmmm Mmmm mm ooo

Some people live for the fortune
Some people live just for the fame
Some people live for the power, yeah
Some people live just to play the game
Some people think that the physical things
Define what's within
And I've been there before
But that life's a bore
So full of the superficial

Some people want it all
But I don't want nothing at all
If it ain't you baby
If I ain't got you baby
Some people want diamond rings
Some just want everything
But everything means nothing
If I ain't got you, Yeah

Some people search for a fountain
That promises forever young
Some people need three dozen roses
And that's the only way to prove you love them
Hand me the world on a silver platter
And what good would it be
With no one to share
With no one who truly cares for me

Some people want it all
But I don't want nothing at all
If it ain't you baby
If I ain't got you baby
Some people want diamond rings
Some just want everything
But everything means nothing
If I ain't got you, you, you
Some people want it all
But I don't want nothing at all
If it ain't you baby
If I ain't got you baby
Some people want diamond rings
Some just want everything
But everything means nothing
If I ain't got you, yeah

If I ain't got you with me baby
So nothing in this whole wide world don't mean a thing
If I ain't got you with me baby

Indeed, I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and
count them as rubbish,
in order that I may gain Christ
- Philippians 3:8

Posters you find in fish n chip shops...

________Psalm 51________

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.