Homely Women and Forrest Gump

I met Forrest Gump. For real. He was in a Wal-Mart where I used to work. His hair had grown long, like in the movie "Castaway". Anyway, I couldn't just let him pass, so I said, "Hey, Forrest, has anyone ever told you you look just like Tom Hanks?"
His eyes contained only emptiness and confusion. Without any acknowledgement of my reference to his popular theatrical performance, Mr. Gump asked, in a shaky voice, "Do you have any bathroom scales here in this Wal-Mart? I'm supposed to do a remodel and I have no idea how much my bathroom weighs."
I had no words for reply. Stunned, I motioned for Mr. Gump to follow as I took him to the household area and showed him our selection of Wal-Mart bathroom scales. He didn't even thank me, just grabbed the first one off the shelf and stood on the box, looking down at his feet. The picture on the box showed a pair of bare feet on the scale, with the number of the weight at an angle so it wasn't readable.
Gump stared hard at the box, scrutinizing carefully. I wanted to walk away, but suddenly, he said, "Do you carry eye glasses? Apparently I can't read the information on the bathroom scale."
Forrest Gump on Homely Women
Hello, my name is Forrest --- Forrest Gump. You know, there is actually nothing more tragic than a homely woman. I mean, she has to fend for herself. It's as if she's invisible.
I heard a nice lady (who was attractive, by the way) say in a public television interview what concerned her the most about growing older.
The interview went something like this:
Interviewer: What scares you most about getting older?
Lady: (without hesitation) Getting older.
Interviewer: That's profound.
Lady: Sure, you make fun all you want, but it really is sad. It's a fear most of us women have to face as we grow older.

Now, I didn't think much of the interview at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize something.
As women get older, they don't get the looks of admiration and recognition they once had. People look past them. That's the invisible part.
Take my cousin Emma, for example. (PHOTO ON LEFT)
She has such a nice personality, but, well, just take a look.
Not the most attractive girl, if you get my drift.
Anyway, Emma's obvious charm and good humor are wasted on trivial people who look only at her physical plainness, opt out of a conversation and a chance to find the true joy of knowing her. And that's why most people argue that beauty is only skin deep, but that's all it needs to be. Most people don't want to look at all your veins and stuff under your skin anyway.
And that's about all I've got to say about that.