So Many Different Kinds of Beautiful...

I don't know what photogenic is...I mean, not exactly.  Ever since I could remember I've loved so many different looks, so many different parts of a face, or a disposition...so many different kinds of beautiful...so many different ways to turn my head.  It makes sense that my own daughters catch my eye.  It makes perfect sense that i think they're beautiful.  I just hope that they do.

As summer slips slowly towards Fall, I keep hearing from students leaving for school...the usual, keep in touch, I'll miss you, see you at Thanksgiving, thanks...and then one that tripped me up. "You reminded me that my face and body didn't matter as much as who I was, and what I stood for.  Funny, by believing that I started to see a different girl in the mirror, and now I can't believe that I ever thought I was anything but beautiful." The nature of all those text messages was emotional enough without that little bit of illumination.  She was beautiful, or at least I thought so, but it didn't strike me until long after we met.  At first I just thought she was cool...amazing...smart...going places...she didn't see any of those things, so how could she ever have imagined that she might be beautiful on top of all that?  She couldn't.

I hope my daughters learn to find a thousand different faces beautiful, none of them the same.  I hope that my daughters do the math that adds personality and character and beliefs and demeanor together to compliment whatever they see on someone's face.  I hope that they can find beauty in a million places, but I hope most of all that they find it when they look in the mirror.