NATURAL BEAUTY, OR CLOSE ENOUGH

Natural beauty? You know it when you see it.

You should know it when you see it after a certain age.

Do you see natural beauty, or do beauty ‘influencers’ show you?

Let’s start at the beginning. Let’s start with your mom, my mom, any mom.

My mom was just a mom like any other until I saw her high school graduation picture the first time.

The second and third time, too.

Who switched her picture for Elizabeth Taylor?

My mom looked like a movie star in her younger days. At least that’s what I thought.

No, I didn’t share that impression. That would have been weird.

But it’s not now. Is it?

Along with the other moms in town she stood out as a natural beauty.

However, a few other moms had something else going for them, like daughters.

That’s where other kids got a glimpse of the future.

If a girl had a lively mom with lots of energy and ideas on how things get done, the daughter might become a lively woman who got things done.

What if a girl had a couch-mom with a pack of Pall Mall Commanders and a brown colored drink on a TV tray to watch soaps all day in a room with closed curtains?

She still might be someone who grows up and gets things done.

There’s a story in that picture but someone else has to tell it.

Why Natural Beauty

I’m a fan of beautiful women who know all about it and make things fun.

If you’re a beauty influencer you need to know how to work it.

This is working it:

Why not call natural beauty what it is: Someone hit the jackpot for genetics.

So there’s that, and that is the basis for beauty influencers. Or should be.

But everyone has a different take on nature.

What Influenced This Natural Beauty Post?

At the dog park one day a man called my name.

I recognized him and remember him as a funny guy from a few years back.

Fun, but divorced. How does a fun guy get divorced?

Guy: Man, it’s hard meeting women these days. So hard it makes me want to stop trying.

Me: Maybe you’re fishing in the wrong lake.

Guy: That’s not it. It’s . . .

Me: The wrong river? The wrong ocean?

Guy: They want so much.

Me: Like someone they can trust and believe?

Guy: Believe me, I don’t think I could date someone in their sixties.

Me: You’re in your sixties, right?

Guy: I could date younger women.

Me: How’s that working out?

Guy: They want so much. Too much.

Me: Like what?

Guy: They want to spend time together.

Me: Like a Sunday afternoon snuggling on the couch like teenagers with parents in the other room?

Guy: And no football.

Me: Like making food together and getting nibbles off each other’s plate.

Guy: More than that. They want to talk.

Me: Sounds normal.

Guy: Yeah, but they want me to listen.

Nature To The Rescue

Ask yourself this question:

Who would you rather listen to, a woman with a book, a woman with her face on, or a woman with both?

That’s the question. Keep your answer to yourself, but the right answer has a book in it.

You want to know they read, or know how to read, like to read.

With a book around you’ll always have a topic: “What are you reading?”

But what if they say, “I’m reading James Joyce.”

Just hope they’re not reading Finnegans Wake.

What if they say they’re reading TC Boyle?

Get familiar with his new novel “Blue Skies.”

With any luck you and your new girlfriend will become Climate Influencers.

Are you feeling lucky yet?