Have you ever rolled your eyes at a weight-loss ad, or the cliché movie in which the ugly duckling finally transforms into a beauty that takes everyone's breath away? Sure you have. After that, you probably even went on to an editorial about pop-culture's infatuation with appearances, the promotion of unhealthy body images, the preoccupation with superficiality and not with the substance which is what matters, etc etc.
B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.
The reason there are weight-loss ads and ugly-duckling movies is that appearances do matter. A lot. Perhaps appearances ARE what matters. Since you humans decided to stray from the wonderful sense of smell you came to rely more and more heavily upon your (flawed) vision. Sad.
In the last two months since my last post, Mom managed to lose the 10lbs that kept tormenting her for almost 3 years now. "What is 10lbs?", you might wonder. Not much, really, though weight has a different weight (ha ha) on a shorty like mom. And yet, 10lbs can make a world of difference. All of a sudden, mom finds someone holding the door open for her at the Wawa when she's 10 feet away. Last week she got a flat tire and the cop who stopped to check us out ended up helping her with the bolts even though police are not allowed to help out with breakdowns. At milongas, the same people who rushed away after dancing stayed and chatted about the weather for 15 minutes. Seriously.
There are many ugly-ducklings-no-more who are only too happy to join the cool kids at last and not be in the margin any more. The problem? Mom is not one of them. While she certainly does not miss the extra weight and the heavy panting-up-the-stairs, she surely does miss the invisibility that comes with it. There was great comfort in not having to worry about happy-chatters, or to be able to hang out with the guys without having to worry about one of them coming on to her. Sadly, mom has lost many a male friend in this way.
I keep telling her that if she stops taking showers like I have, this may help her situation but she doesn't listen (yet). Not that this would help with the friend situation, of course, but humans overrate friendship anyway...
2 comments:
Are you trying to complain, or what? :)
Think of it in the context of your management class: you are given access to a new source of power, now you simply have to manage it. Use the force. Or, if you prefer: everything has a value. If you gain something you lose something, and in this case the price is visibility.
"trying to"? I don't need to "try", I'm pretty good at it, thank you very much!
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