Thursday, April 22, 2010
Beautiful???
Who defines beauty? I demand answers! What is the definition of beauty?! In what culture should I move to where 'I' would be the definition of "beautiful"???
If a definition could or should be settled upon, whose to say some hyper, self-proclaimed intelligent won't scuttle up and stomp that particular definition into an oblivion?!
Where can beauty be found? I myself am ever searching. Ever longing.
All who you'd ask, would agree that it's location is ever changing moment by moment, breath by breath, touch by touch. We, as a race, are continually searching for beauty. Striving to attain beauty. Oh to arrive but only for a moment....but the moment is always fleeting.
For a woman, beauty is an unforgiving master; a slave driver that rides you, always in back of your thoughts. Pushing. Nudging. "Do more! You're so close. Just a bit farther. THEN you will be beautiful. More beautiful than....."
Go ahead! Fill in the ..... with whomever you choose. Women are notorious for being able to glance around a room and unconsciously see who might be more/less attractive than they are. Why do we do that? A waste of time, it is. For the open-and-shut truth is, there is NO arriving at "beautiful". There will always be a falling short, an 'almost made it', a 'you're so close but look at her'. There will always be someone prettier, more intelligent, more chiseled abs, smaller feet, bigger melons, longer hair, shorter hair, wittier, better in the kitchen, better in the bedroom! OH MY GOSH! Seriously?! When does it end?
How about this? I, for example, am not beautiful by this world's standards by any means. To be blunt, for starters, I just don't have enough chest to fill that position. When asked in a pole, "Name a beautiful woman.", I guarantee that 99.99% of people would NOT say my name. I'm not down on myself, just realistic.
So why am I not beautiful enough? Why, in a line up of suitable women, would most men pass me over? Oh! May I present the list to answer that?:
I'm chubby, gray haired, wrinkled, dry skinned, dry scalped, dry knee-ed (is that even a word?), stretch marked, thin haired, bad breathed, ogre-like resemblance in the morning, etc., etc, etc.
There it is!
The cold-hard facts.
A nice sterile list.
Impersonal, but true.
Insulting, but true.
Cruel and unfeeling, but true.
Not in any way does this list define 'beautiful'.
Nor does it 'define me'.
These physical flaws do...not...define me.
They also don't disqualify me for the 'beautiful' award!
However, some may disagree and I pity them.
I truly pity them simply because they are still in need of a bit of growing-up, another handful of life experiences to be thrown ever-so-abruptly into their faces. Life is notoriously efficient at changing your definition of 'beautiful' at every turn! This world's definition of beauty? It is fleeting. Temporary. Ephemeral.
Case in point. Is a woman no longer beautiful after her stomach has been stretched during her pregnancy? Has her beauty, or dare I say her exciting appeal, been left behind once she loses a leg suddenly? Gray hairs and saggy wrinkles, for sure, disqualify her for a pin-up photo shoot? But....is she....can she....still be beautiful, desired, enticing, magnetic, alluring, magnifique?
Beauty is temporary.
It is ever changing. Can be found in every moment in which you turn your neck and choose to notice the divine.
Beauty is in a young couple's wedding night. Beauty is in a book on a coffee table. Beauty is a flower petal on a lake. Dirty little finger prints on the wall. A baby's first smile. A wheel chair on a basketball court. In a Children's Hospital Cancer Ward's play room. An 83 year-old woman kneeling over the grave of her husband of 60 and 3/4 years. A kind word spoken to a wounded heart.
Beautiful is undefinable. Beautiful is never constant.
Beautiful is there, if you but look for it.
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I love that you put on your sassy pants in the middle of the waiting room and jotted it all down. A bit of 'rage against the machine' is so good for all us women. We can't help but be downheartened by the airbrushed bosoms on every other commercial we see. But, thankfully, we can shake each other awake from time to time, as you did in this post, and yell at the tv with equal parts rage and glee: "That's a load of crap!"
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