Beauty versus self-belief

I know that I've got big ears and a big forehead and that my hair sticks up. But I'm happy with myself. I'm not necessarily trying to win a beauty pageant here-- Clay Aiken

Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork - reading, writing, thinking - can -- Helen Gurley Brown

The beauty that addresses itself to the eyes is only the spell of the moment; the eye of the body is not always that of the soul-- George Sand

I was reading an article about what is considered beauty. They were trying to make people believe that if they looked like this or that celebrity then they would be beautiful. In my less than humble opinion - what a load of crap. I subscribe to the corny but very true ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’

When I was a kid – and surprisingly I was a child – probably for a couple of years – I asked my mother would I be pretty when I grew up. She said no. Now she wasn’t being harsh or horrible – she was just being realistic and I am thankful for being brought up being realistic. It has saved my arse many a time. I am not beautiful and never have been and that’s okay with me. Now, before you think – My, Amarinda is down on herself today – I’m not. I still believe in myself 110% and I know I am fantastic. No change in the status quo there. But I have never had pretensions to beauty so I am not upset at people’s opinions of how I look. I am who I am – that’s the Popeye theory of life and he loved Olive Oyl even though some may have considered Olive plain. She was beautiful to him and that’s all that mattered. I love me as I am and that’s all that matters.

My oldest brother used to continuously tell me as I was growing up that I was ugly. He was an idiot child. As a teenager that upset me but as an adult I can look at him and think there is much ugliness within him that I cannot and will never find attractive in any person. So what is attraction? To me, I like to hear what people’s thoughts are. I like someone that can look me in the eye as they speak because they make me believe in them as a person. I love a good sense of humour and confidence is wildly appealing. I find that’s attractive and sexy. The outside appearance of a man has never meant anything to me. Oh sure it may be the thing you look at first but it’s just the outside packaging and don’t we always discard that to get to the heart of a thing?

So why should people care about being beautiful? I personally don’t see the need to care. Be yourself. If people like or love you – great – if they don’t – well they don’t and you move on in your life without them. And yes, while some celebrities appear outwardly attractive, who are they really? We don’t know anything about them other than what is written in a magazine etc. How can you base what’s beautiful on someone else’s opinion? So, I say lets all be realistic and have the strength to accept who you are and what you look like and avoid so called beauty tips. You are an original so why try to look like someone else?

Changing subject as I do…I know absolutely nothing about football – Rugby league – other than the players wear short shorts and have very nice, powerful looking thighs. Actually sport in general is a foreign world to me. Apart from playing netball when I was a kid – I was in a team unfortunately called the ‘snowflakes’ and didn’t we pay for that name when we played the ‘highly spirited’ (vicious) Catholic school team called the ‘Cherokees’ – I don’t get the attraction of sport. Anyway, last night they had the Centenary Test on television. It was a football game that was between Australia and New Zealand celebrating 100 years of football. Why do I mention it if I have no idea of what football or sport is about? I always watch the start of any game when a Kiwi team is involved as I love watching them do the Haka before the game. It’s very tribal, masculine and powerful. What is the Haka?

Haka - a cultural ceremony display with a chant performed by many Southern Pacific teams as a challenge before a match at the center of the pitch.http://www.scrum.com/954_957.php.

There are of course many different forms of a Haka. Check one of them out here. I believe it’s the best part of Rugby League. I turn the TV off after that.

Quel controversy. Did they pelvic thrust or not? There has been a lot of hoo-ha over whether a bunch of models doing a scripted dance routine did the pelvic thrust or not to God Bless The USA at the 2008 RT convention or not. Don’t some people get their knickers in a knot over the smallest things? Anyway I saw the video on You Tube morning. I saw nothing offensive about it. In fact it looked about as sexy as a cheese sandwich. But I suppose it gave people something to get ‘outraged’ over and I feel people need to have a hobby and outrage is just as good as any other past time to have. I personally have always found scripted male strippers quite funny. Call me crazy but men gyrating to music and trying to look sexy while remembering to step, step, unbutton shirt, smile and turn, wiggle arse and focus attention on a crowd of tipsy women just does nothing for me but make me laugh and I guess that’s not a bad thing. Now sexy to me is an unscripted, private, consensual strip tease by your man. That is a completely different. Don’t you agree?

De-Promptelized today. Hallelujah. A bit of a wasted day waiting for connection, men clumping around the house etc yet despite that I feel lighter already knowing I deal with no more crap from the other mob. And yes Barbara, you can also use this as part of your creative weight loss routine. I also organized to change my mobile (cell phone) over as well as the landline/internet. I feel kind of bad about this as the mobile I have now is one I have had for 3 years. It has been through a lot with me. I have dropped it that many times and yet it has never stopped working, It is battered and chipped and the silver casing is nicked and scratched yet it still works albeit with a pissed off attitude at times. A bit like myself really…except I’m not silver…though I do wear only silver rings on my left hand and gold on my right. Why? I just do. Anyway back to the mobile. It’s a tough little Motorola. I’ll keep it in case the new whipper snapper version can’t hack the being dropped on its head pace. Hopefully the new mobile phone company can handle the trees that surround my house – it’s a bit like a fortress. The current company can’t. If someone calls me on the mobile I have to go out into the middle of the road and speak. That’s not really conducive to private conversations is it?

www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?