What Would it Be Like?

What would it be like to be valued like a rare diamond and treated like a shining star?

In 2002, actress Jamie Lee Curtis posed for More magazine wearing no makeup and with no photo retouching. It caused a stir in Hollywood at the time because it challenged the notion that a woman should present herself without physical flaw, fluff, or flabbiness.

Irish singer, Sineade O’Connor, was deemed a rebel for adopting a persona that include a shaved head. Women are supposed to have beautiful hair after all. To that point, a co-worker of mine, Shannon, wore her hair cropped very very short. It was so short you couldn’t even call it a pixie cut. Maybe a “pix” at best. She had occasionally been the recipient of people’s close-minded judgment based on the shortness of her hair. She endured glares and snide comments and even an intentional irate bump from a shopping cart as a form of protest to her look. She was ahead of her time style wise and took the heat for it.

Why do we expect people to conform to our standards and our expectations of what is acceptable and what is beautiful? Why do we sort people into categories much like we’d rate produce on a factory conveyor belt? Grade AAA and so on.

Instead of offering a one-dimensional answer I’d rather stir your thoughts a bit. Just suppose what it would be like if we were to treat all people we encountered as if they were genuinely special, beautiful, and valuable in our community. And we ourselves were viewed by others in the same light. What would it be like?

We must look for the diamond in the rough and learn to value people accordingly. ✨💎✨