Virtue

BIGGER BREASTS AND SMALLER NOSES: The Correction Continuum. Is Plastic Surgery Immoral?

September 22, 2012 By Kathy Schiffer 17 Comments

Is plastic surgery immoral?

Chances are, you think it’s a bad idea to have breast enhancement surgery (in the vernacular, a “boob job”). You think it’s (choose one or more): too risky, too expensive, superficial, degrading to women, likely to cause cancer or adverse side-effects in old age, likely to impair breast-feeding….

Chances are, conversely, that you would unquestioningly shell out $3,500 of your hard-earned dollars for orthodontics to straighten your pre-teen son’s teeth.

* * * * *

I was stuck in traffic one day, driving the 30 miles from my office to my home in Oakland County, when I realized that I had passed five—count ‘em, FIVE!—plastic surgery clinics along my route. In the affluent communities north of Detroit, breast enhancements and “nose jobs” are de rigueur.

What’s worse, a Reuters report just out of Korea claims that students who have passed grueling college entrance exams are being rewarded by their parents with plastic surgery. In Korea, the most popular cosmetic surgeries have the dual goals of “Westernizing” the nose (giving it an upward tilt) and making the eyes appear larger through double-lid surgery. One hospital takes it to the next level with an advertised “combo package”: If a student chooses to modify eyes and nose at the same time, the hospital offers the student’s mother a free Botox injection.

If silicone injections to achieve cosmetic results seem to you somewhat shallow, just what is the imaginary “body modification” line you will not cross in order to achieve a certain standard of beauty? You will have your own “tipping point” along the CUSP (Continuum of Unessential Surgical Potentialities—I just made that up), stopping somewhere along a line like this:

BAD SURGERIES

Sex change operation

Breast enhancement from size 34B to 42EEE, to boost your career in the entertainment industry

Botox of the lips to achieve Angelina Jolie pouty profile

Tattoo of a dragon across your back, chest and down the right arm

Tattoo of your child’s footprint

Pierced nipple or navel or….

Pierced lip

Breast reduction surgery (for comfort, not for sex appeal)

Liposuction for tummy reduction

Eyelift to correct sagging eyelids after the age of 50, restoring full vision

Rhinoplasty (shortening of the nose)

Hair implants to counter premature baldness

Acne treatments

Surgical removal of a scar or birthmark

Pierced ears

Reconstruction of the breast after cancer surgery

Stitches and restorative surgery following a dog bite

Repair of a cleft palate

Skin grafts and reconstructive surgery after a fire or chemical explosion

GOOD SURGERIES

In essence, the Church admonishes us to respect life and physical health as precious gifts entrusted to us by God. However, as the Catechism warns in 2289: “If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for its sake, to idolize physical perfection….”

Beauty is only skin-deep, and we must strive to achieve the “inner beauty” that comes as we advance in virtue. We must appreciate that “inner beauty” in others we meet, too—thus encouraging confidence in those with plainer features, so that they can accept the body that God has given them.

Filed Under: Beauty, Conscience, Virtue Tagged With: Beauty, Conscience, Virtue 17 Comments

WE ARE THE "ICE-NINE" OF THE UNIVERSE

September 19, 2012 By Kathy Schiffer 1 Comment

In his 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle, science fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut introduces a fictional polymorph he calls “ice-nine.” According to Vonnegut, ice-nine is an alternative structure of water that is solid at room temperature. It acts as a seed crystal which, when it comes into contact with liquid water below 45.8° C, causes the rapid freezing of the entire body of water.

In Cat’s Cradle “Papa” Monzano, the badly ailing dictator of the mythical island of San Lorenzo, while dying of inoperable cancer commits suicide with ice-nine—touching it to his body and thus freezing into a block of ice. When an airplane crashes into the dictator’s seaside palace, the unlikely accident plunges his frozen body into the sea; and all the world’s oceans, rivers and ground water are turned to ice.

Since publication of Vonnegut’s Hugo Award-nominated work, “ice-nine” has been used as a metaphor for anything that converts other things to more of itself.

And that’s where WE come in. In the daily push-and-pull of life, our attitudes and demeanor are rubbed off on the people we meet.

Smiling mothers beget smiling, cooperative children.
Bosses who approach their work with energy and commitment inspire the same diligence in their employees.
Friendly neighbors are the “glue” that strengthens a community and creates a nurturing environment where young and old alike can feel safe and welcomed.
Good teachers infuse their students with a love of learning.
And Christians—those erstwhile people along the journey toward perfection, followers of Jesus of Nazareth who both imitate and mirror His virtues—should inspire others around them to become more gentle, more loving, more kind.

In reality, we are the “ice-nine” of the universe.

Do you remember that old standard of 1970s folk masses, “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love, By Our Love…”? The tune and lyrics may rank up there with “Kumbaya” kitsch, but the idea holds true nonetheless: Our attitudes and disposition, our virtues and vices, our generosity and our nobility, are passed along like “ice-nine” from one warm body to another, and down through the generations. Like ripples from a stone dropped into still water, an act of kindness can reach not just the intended recipient, but countless others in the days and years ahead.

Go forth, then, and spread the stuff of life—not icy indifference, but warmth and love—through your simple acts of kindness.

Filed Under: Imagination, Science Fiction, Virtue Tagged With: Imagination, Science Fiction, Virtue 1 Comment

Two Doors, Seven Locks: Preserving the Crown of Saintly King Wenceslaus

September 17, 2012 By Kathy Schiffer 2 Comments

You may not know this—who thinks of St. Wenceslaus except at Christmastime?—but Friday, September 28, is his feastday.

Wenceslaus was born in 903 to a Christian father and a pagan mother. It was his devout grandmother, St. Ludmilla, who educated Wenceslaus in the Christian faith.

After Wenceslaus’ father, Duke Wratislaw, died, his pagan mother Dragomir opposed Christianity in the country. Wenceslaus—named Duke by the Emperor Otto I—took the reins of government and placed his duchy under the protection of Germany. He welcomed Christianity, inviting German priests to establish Latin-rite churches in the area. Wenceslaus, who had taken a vow of virginity, was revered for his virtues and for his great generosity to the poor.

However, Wenceslaus’ pagan mother remained an opponent. At Dragomir’s urging, his brother Boleslaw murdered Wenceslaus and hacked his body to pieces. Wenceslaus was buried at the place of his murder; but three years later Boleslaw, having repented of his deed, had the body moved to the Church of St. Vitus in Prague.

St. Wenceslaus Chapel—and the Seven Keys

So now good St. Wenceslaus, patron of Czechoslovakia, is buried in the St. Wenceslaus Chapel at the Cathedral of St. Vitus.

The decorations in the chapel are priceless: the lower parts of the walls are decorated with more than 1,300 Bohemian gems. The joints between the jewels are covered with gold.

On the walls are Gothic frescoes depicting scenes from Wenceslaus’s life and from the Bible. The frescoes cover nearly 2,500 square feet, and King Charles IV himself is immortalized in the fresco depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus. The elaborately decorated tomb of St. Wenceslaus can be seen in the center of the chapel.

But look—over there!! In the southwest corner of the chapel is a door, behind which is a staircase leading to the Coronation chamber. There, the Crown Jewels of the Czech Republic are protected. The priceless Crown Jewels include
• The St Wenceslaus Crown of Charles IV (1347),
• The Royal Sceptre (dating from the first half of the 16th century),
• The Royal Orb (also from the first half of the 16th century), and
• The Coronation Vestments including the grand Coronation Cloak (dating from the beginning of the 17th century).

You can’t see them, though; in fact, no one can!

That’s because behind the door to the Coronation chamber is another door, this one to an iron safe. These two doors have a total of seven locks—which must be opened by seven keys. The seven keys are kept by seven different people, who must be brought together if the door is ever to be opened.

The holders of the seven keys are Czechoslovakia’s President, the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Prague, the Chairman of the House of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Parliament), the Chairman of the Senate (the upper chamber of the Parliament), the Dean of the Metropolitan Chapter of St. Vitus Cathedral, and the Lord Mayor of Prague. These are busy people, all of them—and so the jewels are displayed rarely. So rarely, in fact, that the Coronation chamber was opened only nine times in the 20th century.

Also there at the cathedral, but stored separately in the Treasury of St. Vitus Cathedral, are the St. Wenceslaus Sword and the Coronation (Reliquary) Cross.

So that’s it, folks! All that glistening wealth, but we can’t gaze upon it! Let us, then, sing to the great Czech king whose feast we celebrate.

Merry Christmas, a little early!