Ideal....

I'm not really into fashion, and other than a very few handful of people, (Kate Beckinsale, Milla Jovovich, Charlize Theron... Amiright?) I'm all "meh" about these impossible ideas about what perfection and beauty are. I mean, other than the fact that there is really no such thing as perfect... Seriously, one person's ideas about what perfection is, are different from another's and at what point does one determine what is and what isn't the ideal? How does one really make that determination at all? Alright, you have some baselines about what is pleasing and attractive. Clear skin, not looking like a hot mess, not all obese with flab flaps hanging out all over the place.... whatever. But beyond just the superficial whatever and stuff. How is one supposed to define "ideal" when it's really comes down to opinion? For example: Angelina Jolie. Some people she is the hottest thing since the discovery of ghost peppers. I think she's creepy looking on a good day. I find nothing attractive about her. Like, "Ew! Get it away....." But see? that would be a prime example.

On the other side of that, perfection, and I mean, a perfection that is something that anyone with all of their own opinions, would look at and be like, "Wow...." would be creepy, wouldn't it? What do you do with that. We are all different and I think it's the quirks and imperfections that bring a certain charm to people's looks. It's the freckle on your lover's shoulder that you've named Miles. It's that scar on your sweetheart's back that you can't help but run your finger over just because. That stray hair that you've affectionately dubbed Stanley, just because. The sweet crooked smile that you long to see after a few hours of not seeing them. Something that someone else might consider to be less than ideal, but in your world, it's perfect.

Our young people are constantly being bombarded by what "ideal" and "perfect" is supposed to be with ads all over the place, that show impossibly proportioned models who have been airbrushed into almost non-human looking beings and it is just not healthy for the kids' self images. I am really not sure when it became a serious thing where, in stead of striving for health, fitness and being comfortable in one's skin started coming second to this growing trend, but it saddens me.

At this point, I would like to believe that, with my parenting and teaching my children that they should be great with who they are, that my kids will grow up confident in their looks and their self perceptions enough that "the trends" won't matter to them. They are all beautiful individuals with unique looks of their own and I hope they will never kowtow to these trends and try to look like what they see around them and become lost among the sheep. I would much rather them stand out for who they are because they ARE comfortable with who they are. I want them to grow up to be individualistic and free thinkers who can think outside the box and can form trends of their own. Individuals who aren't afraid to go against the grain to be themselves and be happy with who they are, instead of being thrust into the world with the idea that they are expected to be something else.

Among the many fears I have for my kids, other than all the violence and tragedies that seem to plague our world today, and the easy access to roads that would lead them down a slippery path to certain dangers, one of my fears for my kids as a parent is that they will become part of the flock........