Everyone has received a share of 'stink eye.' Like Mammy Yokum of Li'l Abner, some of us believe that looks are evil and can kill. If not literally, figuratively.

What parent has not given a dirty look to a child. a visual experience that personifies disapproval? Do looks kill? Yes and no.

No, the dirty look I give my wife for something she's done that I didn't like won't kill her. It may add some remorse, spark a confrontation, but no blood is spilled, and no funeral attended.

Yes, looking at one's self and seeing something hideous, worthless, overweight, ugly, and unloved may actually kill. If not kill, destroy self worth.

Self esteem and self worth are fragile enough without visions of perfection infecting television commercials, television shows, movies, and magazines to cloud the differences between reality and fantasy.

What we are, what we want to be, and what media and society tells us we should be, are seldom the same things.

Pity those poor souls whose lives are disrupted, ruptured, fractured, and frayed because they can never see themselves as they are and be satisfied.

On the other hand, some people fall in love with ourselves, based on little more than a look in the mirror accompanied by a constant running commentary from well-meaning parents, friends, and neighbors.

For those beautiful souls, the looks they receive from poor souls do not kill. That's probably too bad.