Imperfect Beauty

Perhaps I have been watching too much "Real Housewives", but it seems like there have been a rash of cosmetic surgeries and I am so tired of seeing this.

Can we stop already?

Some might say: "You are just jealous."  To that I answer with a "Damn straight I am".

Bodies sag over time.  Skin loosens, things shift, hair starts saying "Fuck you, I'll grow where and how I want".  Put a few babies through that machine and even FEMA couldn't fix the wreckage.  I used to look at NatGeo in the high school library and call my friends over to look at those poor ladies' boobs hanging at their waists looking so sad (the boobs, not the women) and we would LAUGH, oh boy would we laugh.  This my friends, is karma in its harshest form. 

You tell yourself things like: Whatever.  I don't care. This happens to everyone. It's natural.  Then people around you start making modifications that change what natural is.  There is always that asshole in class that gets all the questions right plus extra credit, which makes you 87% worth so. much. less.

The game is being changed.  Instead of all of us standing together in our swim dresses and spanks, we are pushing "normal" into the shadows.  This is amplifying the need to be something that most are not.  In communities everywhere, the majority of people are "unattractive" by industry standard.  Those modifying themselves are taking that majority away from people like me.  At least when TV is telling me I am fat, short, acne prone, flabby armed and flat chested, I can look at my peers and know that I am OK. It seems like this may not be the case for long.

I am trying my hardest to love myself.  I have made it a point to never say anything negative about my body in front of my girls and any time they say "You are so pretty Mommy", I reply with an enthusiastic "Thanks! I am- aren't I!". It is a small way to let them know that normal is spectacular in a world that is obsessed with perfection.  In all actuality it reminds me that I am OK and it is OK to think so.  I want my girls to know that there is beauty in every shape and size.  I want them to live in a more imperfect world, not the inverse.

I still struggle with body image and obviously with jealousy and comparing myself to others.  For those of you that are the same,  I assure you, you are beautiful and some one out there thinks you are perfect.  Even if it is your girlfriend, a 4 year old or a husband with terrible vision.

I challenge all of us to lower the bar!  Love the ordinary, take a compliment, wear shorts in public.  A former boss used to tell me that "perception is reality", so let's start changing reality.  The next time you see my white cellulite riddled legs out and about, or my boobs rolled up in a tube top or if I almost knock myself out with my arm flab waving at you, don't judge.  Just remember that the majority of people look just like me under their clothes and the more of us that bare it, the more beautiful it will be.