Someday, I\u2019ll write a post for which that would be an appropriate title.\u00a0 In the meantime, here\u2019s a moderately interesting question:\u00a0 how much can you tell about a person by studying his face?\u00a0 Can you tell if he\u2019s basically decent or not?\u00a0 Does it make a difference if it\u2019s a photo or in person?\u00a0 Have you ever been terribly wrong?<\/p>\n
I saw this picture of the Pope<\/p>\n
and thought to myself, \u201cThat there is the main reason people don\u2019t like him.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s completely unjust, of course.\u00a0 Anyone who\u2019s been paying attention knows that this is a kind, humble, and holy man, apparently devoid of selfishness and malice.\u00a0 But if you were already anti-Catholic, I can see how \u2014 well, like everyone says, he just looks like Emperor Palpatine.<\/p>\n
People who assume that he stays up late at night, figuring out how to boost\u00a0 the annual number of African AIDS orphans, might say that they can see his evil on his face.\u00a0 It\u2019s not hard to find apparent evidence of what they expect to see.\u00a0 But of course, they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n
So obviously you can\u2019t assume that someone\u2019s evil just because they look mean and wrinkly.\u00a0 But there are other things you can see, I think: self-absorbtion or nacissism, for one thing.\u00a0 Serial killers and movie stars often have that same look.<\/p>\n
Of course we can\u2019t know someone\u2019s soul.\u00a0 Of course there are very few people who are all good, or all bad \u2014 maybe there are none at all.\u00a0 But what do you think?\u00a0 Who can you think of who, as far as you can see, shows exactly who they are on their face?\u00a0 Have you ever been taken in \u2014 either fooled by a baby-faced villain, or surprised to discover that someone whose face you feared or despised turned out to be a friend or a hero?\u00a0 Do you<\/em> have a misunderstood face?<\/p>\n Maybe this isn\u2019t the best post for Advent, when we\u2019re supposed to be searching our own souls and then turning to God, instead of staring at each other, searching out signs of hypocrisy.\u00a0 Well, what do you want for your money?\u00a0 You can always cut out more snowflakes.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Someday, I\u2019ll write a post for which that would be an appropriate title.\u00a0 In the meantime, here\u2019s a moderately interesting question:\u00a0 how much can you tell about a person by studying his face?\u00a0 Can you tell if he\u2019s basically decent or not?\u00a0 Does it make a difference if it\u2019s a photo or in person?\u00a0 Have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1533,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n