Immortality

"nh hr=k nfr ms.t=k rn=k rwd r nb." -- Egyptian Book of Breathings.

Translated, "Thy beautiful face liveth in thy children."

(Latter painting by Christine Daae)

You are beautiful!

Oh, that this website I have found, could be viewed by every Woman and Girl on Earth!

What an awesome concept! My deepest admiration goes out to the exemplary Ladies who have created it!

http://iambeautiful.com/

Their credo: "Our mission is simple: to create a world in which every woman and girl can proudly proclaim, "I Am Beautiful!"

"How do we redefine feminine beauty to make it more inclusive? How do we combat the damaging media messages and distorted cultural ideals about women and beauty? How do we show our daughters, sisters, friends, mothers and grandmothers the power in naming their own beauty?

Self-acceptance is the first step.
That is what the I Am Beautiful Project is all about: self-esteem through
self-discovery!"

And They even quote the delightful Audrey Hepburn, one of my most favorite people, who was and eternally will be beautiful in body, mind and soul:

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness;
for lovely eyes, seek out the good in people;
for beautiful hair, let a child run her fingers through it once a day."

The Hottie and the Nottie

I've just seen a preview for some new movie based on the premise that a guy has to find a date for an ugly Girl so that he can pursue a pretty one.

Ugliness is apparently defined in this movie as bad teeth, bad nails and a birthmark. Those are all things that can be remedied relatively easily. I don't know yet, having only seen one preview, whether the plot has the guy learning to see past these attributes and/or whether She gains a boost in confidence and fixes them.

But it is ironic that the "pretty" Girl is Ms. Paris Hilton, whose less than endearing personal habits and personality, are well-known. Dare I say, pretty is as pretty does?

Chase "sees it"

My long-time blog pal Chase March has written a great post (well, that's nothing unusual!) about the concept of seeing the natural beauty, beyond the mere physical aspects, though it may be present, of the Women in one's everyday life.

He acts as if it is a new experience for him, and as if I deserve some kind of credit. I say, Chase has always been enlightened this way: it was he who saw the beauty in Alexis (Rescue Me) and brought Her gifts to our attention, for example.

Chase is a gentleman and a gentle man and I hope that his days of feeling lonely and empty will end soon.

Billboard blog post

The beautiful billboard looms above the traffic jam -- a lovely Lady wearing a strand of jewelry.

With due respect to the jewelry company who paid for the ad, far more wonderful in my eyes is the Woman who is wearing their product - whoever She is, wherever She lives.

Jewelry is but glossy stones. Its beauty is limited. She has life. She thinks, walks, speaks and Her beauty is limitless.

True, time will change Her living loveliness, draw lines upon that complexion and at the edges of those pretty eyes, while that jewelry might glimmer unchanged a thousand years from now.

But it is also possible, in that distant day that those stones could lie lost in a drawer or a garbage dump, while Her beauty lives on in words well written; in some aspect of science that Her mind spurred forward; or in the eyes of a great grandchild.

Stones are helpless in the matter of destiny -- the Hope diamond could not stop the hands that trimmed it from its original magnificence -- but She, She lives and She has power to change the world.

Audrey Hepburn's dress sold for nearly $500,000, not because of the cut of the cloth or the fabric from which it was made, but because of the legend who once wore it.

Beauty and Biology

Most people know by now, of the studies that have found biological backing for the traditional categories of human "beauty." Wide hips and firm breasts on a woman signify fertility and health, hence a greater chance that a male who chooses her for a mate will have healthier, more viable offspring. Facial symetry indicates absence of disease or defects that could impact health or lifespan, or be passed on to offspring. Youth is desirable over age.

And women select a man who will be strong, resourceful and able to defend her and her offspring from dangers.

It actually gets more complicated -- at various times in her cycle, a woman leans more towards a man who is nurturing as opposed to rugged. And when a man falls in love with a woman, his testosterone level actually goes down.

Yet, in today's society, a man or a woman who chooses a potential mate only on the biological characteristics noted above -- in other words, is doing exactly what nature programs him or her to do, for the survival of the species -- earns disgust and scorn for being "shallow."

And on the opposite spectrum, modern high fashion favors models, female at least, who are so stick thin and unhealthy that they probably couldn't deliver a Barbie doll baby without a C-section and it would then starve attempting to suckle its mother's atrophied mammary glands.

Just some thoughts a-spinning.

I'm thankful for Darlene in Chinese

Okay, that headline will make sense if you perservere to the end of the post.

I bought Chinese food for lunch today. And in doing so, wondered again how I might say thank you in Chinese. Finally remembered my inquiry long enough to look it up on the computer. Xie xie. Pronounced like she-she, but with the tongue lower down in the mouth than if a typical American were to speak.

Turns out to also be a venerable Chinese family name, with variations depending on location. Tse in Taiwan, for example.

Which got me thinking about a beautiful angel from long ago in my life, Darlene. Darlene Tsu. I wonder if maybe her last name might have been some form of that same word.

She was a Polynesian-Asian blend of utter loveliness, with a personality to match. And if I hadn't been a scatterbrained, 15 year old, confused idiot boy at the time, I would have dated, married and deified her.

She was the first girl who really paid any attention to me, but I was too immature to respond properly. To this day, I remember seeing her for the first time, leisurely strolling down to my darkened, early-morning bus stop, with the tiny red torchlight of her cigarette glowing in her hand.

Oh yes, sweet, otherwise innocent Darlene smoked. My fascination for lady smokers had begun long before, but it burst into flame in her glorious presence.

She gave me a ride home, just once, when she became old enough to drive. She offered another but I told you, the 15 year old boy brain has many missing circuits and doesn't always make sense. I worshipped her and would have ridden with her all the way to Alaska in a beat-up Yugo, so I never rode with her again. Go figure.

But on that one ride, ah -- Debbie Gibson on the stereo, warm spring sunshine upon us, life limitless in front of us. And she lit up a cigarette and I rode beside her for twenty blissful minutes or so, bathed in her sweet smoke, breathing it in like the finest perfume, along with the sun-warmed scent of her hair, and making dumb conversation to the best of my pathetic abilities.

It would make perfect sense for her name to mean "thank you." Her presence that year made it worth getting up for high school every morning, even though I was too stupid to capitalize upon it. And by the time I did have a clue, we moved.

Wherever in this world she is today, I hope she got everything she wanted and floats on clouds of bliss.