This is an easy one. I would much rather be clever than good looking for many reasons. Not the least of which is that good looks tend to fade with age, while the clever often get even more clever with the increased wisdom of the passing of time. Being good looking might get you some advantages in society but being truly clever, this wouldn't cause you any trouble since you could likely find a way to get ahead of the good looking people anyways.

We've all seen a less than beautifull person with a real knockout, right? So how does that happen? Well really there are two explanations as I see it. Either the pretty person is really dumb and doesn't realize they may be selling themselves short, or the less pretty person is of such incredible substance, wit, charm or intelligence that physical beauty in a traditional sense becomes unimportant. I maintain that the former is not but cynical while the latter is reasonable and thereby probable.

I also hold that the truly clever maintain a superior sense of humility. (Can one gracefully boast about ones superior sense of humility, or in that is it lost?) The beautifull usually know they are the beautifull and it inevitably goes to their beautifull heads. They come to rely on preferential treatment and even expect it to some degree. With age the beauty fades until the beautifull become, dare I say, normal looking. Some of the most bitter old people I've ever met were real lookers in thier youth.

And all of the best old couples I've ever known are so because of thier level of comfort in thier lives. In themselves, in each other, in everything. Cleverness can find beauty and comfort in most any circumstance. Beauty meanwhile, rarely looks for anything outside itself. These of course are not absolutes. Just broad swiping generalizations that often (though not always), ring true. I've met people who encompass both qualities. Likewise I've met folks who, at least in my view, lacked both qualities. The former are the rarest while I wish the latter would be. There I go waxing cynical again. Darn my clever wit! Why can't I just be beautifull?

Beauty (of the physical sort), fades with time and gets lost in the passing years. Cleverness and wit meanwhile, get stronger and often sharper. And those who truly understand will be quick to point out that the only enduring sort of beauty is on the inside. Which is probably why the title of this issue specifically uses the words "Good-looking" and not beauty.

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