Miley Cyrus and the Picture of Dorian Gray
Earlier this week, on some
ridiculous award show, people witnessed the meltdown of a 20 year old girl,
Miley Cyrus. We have all seen the
snippets of her pathetic performance. It
wasn’t so much offensive as it was tremendously sad. I am not defending her but she must be
terrified. While most people hit their
maximum income earning potential in their 40’s, Miley is living her life knowing
that she has already passed her expiration date before her 21st
birthday.
This
girl’s implicit debasement of her body put me in mind of an article by Rabbi
Hyim Shafner. The Rabbi writes both a
blog and a column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Like many people who make faith their line of
work, he is wise, comforting and offers a kinder and gentler look at many of
the world’s ills. On Saturday, July 9,
2011 he had a column entitled, “Framing Physical Beauty in a New Light.” He postulated that physical, relational and
spiritual beauty are all fundamentally connected. Rabbi Shafner advocates, “…not jettisoning
the physical for something deeper but seeing it in a new light, illuminated by
the person himself.” He thinks we should
neither ignore, nor deny the sexuality of our being, or physical attraction,
but instead fold them in to the context of the whole person. He wants us to see not just biology, but
humanity, and all the best things that stands for.
He
talks about the Biblical story of Sarah, who at 66 is described as physically
beautiful—so beautiful, in fact, that Abraham is afraid she may be appropriated
by Pharaoh as a concubine. Rabbi
Shafner’s raises two points. First,
Abraham was probably seeing his wife through the eyes of love. But, even more powerfully, Sarah looked and
behaved like a woman who knows her worth on a level far deeper than the surface
of her skin. Sarah is a good woman who
knows how to love life, her husband and herself. That is a trifecta hard to beat in any age.
I think Rabbi Shafner would be a good nudist. What is more, I think visiting a few nudist
parks would reinforce the argument he makes in his article. Social nudism celebrates a natural lifestyle
safe from the objectification of a world too preoccupied with the body and not
enough with the mind, heart and soul.
Nudists certainly don’t deny their sexuality. But we do see nudity as just the top layer in
a much more complicated picture. To us,
a nude body is no more related to sexuality than a scale of notes is to a
cantata. We are too comfortable in our
own skin to see ourselves as something to be bought, sold, traded or used in
any way.
The
best built man in the world is just a jumble of rocks without character and
humility. The most beautiful woman
becomes a hollow and tinny echo chamber when what comes from her mouth is lewd,
rude or malicious. We have all seen
people who we originally thought were beautiful who then said something so
outrageous that our entire picture of them contorted before our eyes. Everyone’s soul is like the picture of Dorian
Gray. It shows who we really are. All the goodness shines through and all the
corruption blots out the light. Maybe
that is why some people are beautiful at 90 and others seem, “used up” at 20. As nudists we very quickly learn how to look
below the layers of superficiality and into the soul.
Learn
to love yourself a little more, Miley, and keep the faith.
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