The #LoveMe Challenge task for today is to share something beautiful. And that got me thinking about what I considered beautiful. Really, are people and things that are visually appealing beautiful to me? Well, of course. Humans are visual animals. So I started thinking about people who were beautiful…
Let’s take my girl-crush on Angelina Jolie. I’ve always thought she was a beautiful woman. Her facial bone structure, and of course, those lips combined into a face that I always thought was very striking. But I think about other women who are similar in appearance. Kim Kardashian is also very striking but I don’t consider her beautiful. What was different between the two?
Angelina Jolie lived a pretty wild life in her younger days. But the one thing that always struck me about her was that she seemed like such a bad-ass, that she really didn’t care what you thought of her, she was going to live life on her own terms. Maybe that self-assuredness made her beautiful. There are many pretty women out there but some times you get the sense that they’re trying too hard to please other people, to gain acceptance rather than self-confidence.
And of course, Angelina’s second act as humanitarian really brought home to me what I was trying to come to terms with the definition of beauty, at least in my eyes. The fact that she spends her time on earth not only making strong female characters in movies come to life but also shining a spotlight on the plight of refugees and women in crises really made her beautiful.
She is the embodiment of beautiful to me because she is self-assured, yet she also understands that time here is precious and doing good for the world is better than total self-centeredness. I thought of other women like Malala, Somaly Mam, and even Mother Teresa. And I realized that I thought all of the women who try to do something positive in the world are far more beautiful than the most visually attractive people who live a life of self-absorption. And there is a real lesson in that for me. Would I look at what I’m spending my time here on earth worthwhile for anyone other than myself? Would I consider myself, scars and all, beautiful?
Of course, it wouldn’t hurt if I had amazing bone structure too… :o)