A Pound of Virtues

When I was in junior high, I took a class on infant development or some such thing. One day in this class, we had to watch a video. I don't remember what the main focus of the movie was, but I do remember one thing from it.

It said that every child is born with a pound of virtues. Some are especially beautiful, some are good at numbers, and some have great empathy. But everybody has exactly one pound. I came away from that movie lesson thinking about how exactly you go about measuring the various virtues and wanting to make some sort of game out of it. A create your baby, assign the virtues sort of thing. Which, now that I think of it, sounds sort of like assigning attributes in an RPG.

My major vice is romance novels. I'm a bit embarrassed mentioning it here, but it provides the context for my next observation.

In a few novels I've read, the main characters will see their potential love interest and be immediately ridiculously attracted to him/her. And then, because the other person is so incredibly attractive, they assume that they have no other redeeming qualities. That they must be self-centered and self-serving, and have no desire for anything more than a series of flings. Of course, by the end of the novel, each party realizes that the other person is highly intelligent, altruistic, and shares all their beliefs and values.

I've heard anecdotes about people in real life who assume shy, pretty people are snobs. And maybe somebody has made such an assumption about me- I am shy, and know there are at least a couple people out there who consider me pretty. If they have made those assumptions, I never noticed. That makes one possible benefit of being completely oblivious. But my point is, I don't think I'm a snob. And a lot of these shy, pretty people have turned out to be perfectly nice.

So, back to the pound of virtues. I understand the point they were trying to make- everybody is special. Everybody has their own gifts and talents and weaknesses. Don't get down on yourself because you aren't as pretty as Janie or as athletic as Michael or as smart as Kate. And don't put yourself above Ricky and Megan, because they have their own things to offer.

But I do sort of worry that this approach to it could lead to someone thinking that just because somebody is visibly gifted in a few areas- the highly attractive athlete who sings in the choir and gets straight As in honors classes- they can't have the other, less visible attributes. And that is not at all true.

Yes, one video is not likely to cause somebody to think this if their other experiences teach otherwise. But if they see this video, and see enough popular, attractive kids be thoughtless jerks, maybe that would do it.