Once when I was a kid, I asked my dad whether he thought I was beautiful. He considered this for a moment and then told me, \u201cYou\u2019re not beautiful, but you are pretty.\u201d *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I took this pretty badly at the time, and I\u2019m sure he got a telling-off courtesy my mother. I remember him trying to explain himself: he meant I wasn\u2019t glamorous, all movie-star sleek like Grace Kelly. I suppose at the time beauty meant to him something stylish and lofty, but pretty meant something down-to-earth and affectionate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This conversation has stayed with me, and I think about it often. Who do I think is beautiful? What is it about them that makes them so? Beauty is a broad term encompassing so much more than physical traits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever notice how someone who\u2019s initially good-looking can become way less so when you realize something unpleasant about them? (I became aware of this in the 3rd grade when a previously cute boy turned out to be a jerk.) It works the other way too: people become more physically attractive the more delight you find in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example: Bill Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He doesn\u2019t have lush locks or a perfect complexion. But he has a beautiful face. It\u2019s his eyes. His expressions. His half-smile. His laugh. His hair (it has his character).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His voice. How he delivers deadpan lines. The way he says \u201cwow\u201d. How he breaks into song. It\u2019s his timing. The way he carries himself. His slapstick. He can bring me to tears with laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s his thoughtful intelligence. His perception of himself. How he views life, purpose, people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would rather spend five minutes with him than an hour with Brad Pitt. I take huge delight in Bill Murray. In short, he is beautiful. ~Swoon and faint~<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bill Fucking Murray<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n * Oh my life, what an unfortunate thing for a parent to say. hahaha! It\u2019s true, though: I\u2019m neither glamorous nor sleek. My dad\u2019s words I suppose went some way to free me from that expectation (at least, from him).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n ADDENDUM<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been writing this in my head for a while and finally started to type something out a few days ago, but I got distracted. Then I saw the following article in the Guardian today and it more or less says<\/a> what I\u2019m saying here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once when I was a kid, I asked my dad whether he thought I was beautiful. He considered this for a moment and then told me, \u201cYou\u2019re not beautiful, but you are pretty.\u201d * I took this pretty badly at the time, and I\u2019m sure he got a telling-off courtesy my mother. I remember him … Continue reading Well there\u2019s something you don\u2019t see every day<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41,"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/41"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electromagneticretaliation.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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