Without make up, I look something like this on most days, minus the balloon:
I’m rather fond of the way I look. If I try to see the picture objectively, looking at it as if it is not my own face, I would say that the woman in the picture has lived a life full of love. There’s a beauty in that, regardless of weight or face shape, hair or color.
It isn’t a complete picture though and there’s something about the missing pieces that always bothers me.
In the guest post I wrote for the sparkling Katie from Sass & Balderdash, I expressed my love of make up and my disconnect with my actual appearance:
“I want friends to see the colors of my heart, so I paint them on. I want strangers to see how tall I am inside my heart, so I wear heels. I want everyone to know the volume and brightness of my mind, so I jangle and shine with baubles.”
(Full post here: http://sassandbalderdash.com/2013/08/28/the-modern-misogi-a-guest-post/)
Outside of make up, I can bridge this gap using the wonders of technology, too. It allows me to express my self-perception with little effort. Today– lately, in fact– I’ve identified with something that looks more like this:
Even though I favor green, I like how this picture is blue. In most of my cultures, blue is a color of fate and strength. I like how the picture has movement and stillness all at once– noise and silence are two very true pieces of me. I like how the scribbles and wonders exude from my skin, like an aura stretching out as far as it can go simply because it can.
Both pictures are selfies– self-aimed perceptions of myself. The first is I see myself, the second is how I think I would see myself if I didn’t know how I looked. Today, at least. Last year, it was different. Next year, it’ll be different again, I’m sure.
What would you look like if you didn’t know what you look like? Is your answer different today from what you would have said last year?
This selfie post was brought to you by the The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge.