What is beautiful?
There's a question that everyone thinks they have the answer to but no one's answer is ever the same: What is beautiful?
Like so many of us, I sometimes look at myself in the mirror and wonder what I would change if I could change one thing. The answer varies, and sometimes it's a defiant NOTHING! But sometimes it's my nose. I've often thought that it sticks out a lot and has a little bump near the end. I've grown to like my nose over the years, and certainly it seems like I'm the only person who's ever been bothered by it. That brings me to something I've experienced here in the Philippines that has brought this subject back into my mind.
So many beautiful Filipinas here compliment me profusely on my nose. They say things like, "you're nose is so pretty," or "you have such a nice, pointy nose!" The first time it happened I had to ask the woman to repeat herself because I thought I had heard her wrong. She then said that she hated her nose because it was so flat, and that she'd love to have a big nose like mine. She did say "big".
The more time I spend here, the less I think there’s an answer to beauty. Here women get surgery to make their noses bigger while women back home are making theirs smaller. There are soap products here that advertise “whitening” properties, while I am excitedly watching my skin darken over the months and people back home are rubbing bronzing cream on their bodies. Maybe the answer is that there is no answer and we should stop looking for one, that we’re all beautiful. Maybe beauty comes from how we see, not how we appear.
Like so many of us, I sometimes look at myself in the mirror and wonder what I would change if I could change one thing. The answer varies, and sometimes it's a defiant NOTHING! But sometimes it's my nose. I've often thought that it sticks out a lot and has a little bump near the end. I've grown to like my nose over the years, and certainly it seems like I'm the only person who's ever been bothered by it. That brings me to something I've experienced here in the Philippines that has brought this subject back into my mind.
So many beautiful Filipinas here compliment me profusely on my nose. They say things like, "you're nose is so pretty," or "you have such a nice, pointy nose!" The first time it happened I had to ask the woman to repeat herself because I thought I had heard her wrong. She then said that she hated her nose because it was so flat, and that she'd love to have a big nose like mine. She did say "big".
The more time I spend here, the less I think there’s an answer to beauty. Here women get surgery to make their noses bigger while women back home are making theirs smaller. There are soap products here that advertise “whitening” properties, while I am excitedly watching my skin darken over the months and people back home are rubbing bronzing cream on their bodies. Maybe the answer is that there is no answer and we should stop looking for one, that we’re all beautiful. Maybe beauty comes from how we see, not how we appear.
posted by Carlamanya at 10:22 a.m.
2 Comments:
What a beautifully written post, Carla. So when you come back to Canada and people ask you what you learned in the Philipines you can answer "I know I have a beautiful nose." And you do. Its too beautiful dahling.
love
Rosie
yeah, I like looking at my skin darkening too... we like what we don't have. we like what distinguish us from the general noise. I don't know if this is beautiful or just weird. Ste
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