Feedback

I’m writing in response to a letter I read in the Feedback section of the September ’88 New Era. The letter was titled “By any other name.” The author of this letter stated that she felt the New Era shouldn’t have used a daisy in the Mormonad “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful” because it wasn’t a special flower. I strongly disagree with her. The daisy is beautiful in its own way. It has a simplicity that makes it beautiful.

There are some people who are very beautiful people who are like a daisy. They appear simple on the outside, but they are beautiful when people take the time to look for the beauty in them.

Lori Delwisch
Draper, Utah

I’d like to commend the “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful” Mormonad with one daisy and a bunch of roses. Most people think of roses when they think of beautiful flowers. But a lot of girls don’t feel like a cultivated rose. They may not feel they measure up to such standards of beauty (when looking at their exterior form). They could probably relate to the idea that not only roses are beautiful. Even daisies, common wildflowers, have their own kind of beauty. If there were no variety, only roses in the world, beauty would be seriously curtailed. And people are even more varied than flowers. The Lord gave each of us our own kind of beauty. We just need to discover it and appreciate it rather than wish we were something we’re not.

Ann Neil
Midvale, Utah

In response to a letter printed in the September 1988 issue of the New Era concerning a Mormonad poster entitled “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful,” I feel that the poster is just perfect. The reader who wrote that negative letter has interpreted the poster incorrectly. It’s true that daisies are common and are not a prized flower and that roses are sweet smelling and beautiful, but I feel the ad is trying to tell those of us who feel like we’re just “daisies among roses” that we are just as beautiful and prized as the “roses” around us. Being a Laurel, I feel the poster says just what was intended and is appropriate for young women. Thank you for teaching those who need to “be their own kind of beautiful.”

Karen Sanders
Orangevale, California

The September 1988 issue of the New Era contained a letter from a reader who was disappointed that the Mormonad with the headline “Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful,” used a daisy instead of a rose to represent the unique beauty each person can possess. Her reasoning was that the daisy is not as highly prized as the rose.

However, that is exactly the point behind the Mormonad. The world has developed preconceived standards as to what is considered beautiful or acceptable (like a rose), but that doesn’t mean we have to abide by those standards.

The scripture at the bottom of the Mormonad is 1 Samuel 16:7 [1 Sam. 16:7], which says that “the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” The story behind this scripture is that Samuel had been sent to anoint a new king; he was guided to the home of Jesse the Bethlemite. Samuel took one look at Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, and decided that upon this young man had been bestowed all the physical virtues and attributes of a king, whereupon the Lord issued the above warning. Samuel eventually broke every rule of family birthright and hierarchy by anointing David as king.

The point is, Eliab was a rose—what the world found acceptable. David was a simple daisy—a shepherd boy with no training for running a nation! Samuel was insane to anoint him as Saul’s successor, or so the world said, until David united Israel, rooted out the last Jebusite strongholds, and instituted a reign rivaled only by Solomon’s!

I believe a daisy was an excellent choice. It well represented the youth of the “peculiar people” who should stand out from the crowd!

John Charles Duffy
Orem, Utah