2011-Feb-06 09:14 UTC
Karl on Beauty
I was turned on to watching
An Idiot Abroad
by a friend. It is an entertaining show, where a British fellow
named Karl Pilkington is sent around the globe to see the seven
wonders of the world.
The entertainment of the show is meant to come from Karl's experiences,
his reflections on the cultures, and his overall take on the world.
The producers of the show make it a point to make Karl's life a
misery as an added bonus for both their own and viewer's pleasure.
So far Karl has been sent to China, India and the latest episode took
him to Jordan to see the city of
Petra.
Before leaving for his trip, Karl is shown photos of these magnificent
facades built into rocks. Karl's simple comment was he would rather
be living in the cave across from one of these architectural marvels
than in them. Reason given was so he would have the nicer view rather
than the "crappier" view -- that of the cave across.
At the ending of the episode, Karl is in a cave across the Ad Deir
(I believe) -- "The Monastery" -- and is marveling at his
good call on where he would rather live if given the choice. He would
rather live in the simple cave and have the nice view and not the
other way around.
Karl continues with this
brilliant and
profound IMO
thought:
"... but I wasn't just talking about buildings, I mean, in life,
even being a good looking person or an ugly one, in a way you're
better off being the ugly one and you get to look at nice things.
You're looking at the nice looking people. Doesn't matter me being
ugly. How often do you look at yourself anyway? Same thing. Be
the ugly one ... look at the nice one."
-- Karl Pilkington @ Petra
... sidster