I am what you would call average looking. I could always count on my fair share of attention from men, especially when I was younger. But my story is about someone else.

A co-worker I knew all long time ago happened to be a stunningly beautiful woman. She was Polynesian, and everything about her was remarkable---her eyes, her hair, her skin, her figure. I saw men actually trip and stumble over themselves when she was around. We had the opportunity to get to know one another a little bit, covering desks for other people while they were away at lunch/meetings. She was actually very bright, funny, shy and very modest, in her personality. Her shyness was interpreted as an air of superiority---something people had accused me of in life (as if just being shy weren't painful enough!).

She shared with me one time that it was nice to have a friend who wanted to get to know her; her likes and dislikes, to listen to her thoughts on different topics. It seems women treated her equally as differently for her beauty as men did---by basically expressing their envy of her as rejection and contempt.

She was very lonely. She had enormous trust issues. She didn't date, because men essentially used her as a trophy girlfriend.

She was saving up money to move back to Hawaii, where perhaps she could blend in slightly easier and not be treated like such an odd specimen.

I think about her from time to time, and hope she found happiness and some kind of easy contentment in life.

It all boils down to the fact that EVERYONE, everyone!, has stuff they are doing battle with. You might never guess it, from the way someone presents and conducts themselves. But it is an universal and unchangeable certitude while we are all alive.

That's why kindness is so important! And why it is also universally held in such high esteem.