Simulated Perfection.
A little boy kicked his red mud-stained ball towards me. A little too high the kick was, as the ball bounced off my right knee, leaving a stain that was conspicuous. He ran up to me giggling, a very boisterous one, like he had no clue what he had done. He pointed to the ball, still inattentive to the frown that had formed on my face, which had on it clear signs of tiredness. Before he could say anything, I picked him up and spun him around, his little feet hanging high, drawing wide circles in space.
"Mummy, Mummy!" The little boy's older sister ran out of the house to give me a big hug. I dropped him on the ground and squeezed them both tight in a warm embrace. I had missed them and it was obvious that they had eagerly awaited my arrival. Joseph, my 4 year old boy, gave me a slightly wet kiss on my cheek and Deborah, a very smart 7 year old, wasn't slow in noticing the stain on my knee. I explained to her that it was her brother's fault and I could not help but smile when I watched them both chuckle simultaneously with Joseph framing his delicate face with his tiny hands. "Come on, let's go in", I said as I led them in. "It's Daddy's turn to cook!" I felt glad to be home.
As a motivational speaker, I get the opportunity to visit many places and give them a piece of my oversized mind. I love that I get paid to voice my opinions. Sometimes, it puts the audience in a good mood, full of colour and life after my speech. I do get treated as a celebrity after these particular talks- giving autographs and running out on business cards and other times, I leave the audience solemn, times before, I have been walked out on by a few angered listeners. This, today, was an example of the latter case and I could understand why.
The audience, consisting of students, their parents and the teachers of the esteemed Belleton Girls High School, Lakewood were chirpy and chatty as I took to the stage. I let them quiet down while I set up my presentation.
"SimPerfection", I started, "is short for Simulated Perfection". A few whispered. They had heard the term before, I had written a book that mentioned it and the book became a bestseller. "I remember watching a video on Youtube years ago, when I was 17 to be precise. It was an advert for a cosmetic product. For reasons I am not so sure about, the video showed how a model was converted from her real self to an image the advertisers thought was fit to portray to the product. It was a long process, and I'm telling you with Photoshop you could look like anything you want to, even Abraham Lincoln" I put up a picture of my husband made up to look like the prestigious president. Thankfully, it came across as comic.
"Not long after, a friend of mine introduced me to a website. She used it to try on her make-up before she bought them and found it useful to load a picture of herself onto that website to try out the suitable products it had on offer. The idea was quite attractive, until I realised that my skin tone in pictures was very different from reality. You'd think with that I'd abandon the website but instead, I began to spend many hours creating new looks of myself. Gradually,I went from trying on lipstick by Rimmel to altering my face to look different. I was knocked back to my senses when I inadvertently made a picture of myself to look like Kim Kardashian, who was described as an epitome of beauty in my day.
I'm writing a book at the moment called 'Being Leah'. How many of you know the story of
Going back to the media, it is funny how the media feed ideas into our minds isn't it? They say something is 'in' and automatically it trends. They say someone is beautiful and people go looking for makeup tips to look similar to that person. The media is the shepherd and there are so many sheep- they just follow. A few years ago, Dove, the cosmetic company, made a campaign that encouraged people not to follow the standard that the media had set concerning beauty. I realise that if you control people's perceptions about beauty you have a key to control their lives. I started doing these talks when I realised how much society has placed a burden on shoulders of young girls like you. Some of you struggle to look in the mirror when you wake up, you brush your teeth with your eyes closed! Girls as young as 8 years old are being made to diet! What did I know about dieting at that age? I didn't have a clue what the word was! I have a 7 year old daughter who still doesn't know there is such a word as 'ugly'! Don't get me wrong, she's not shallow; in fact she received an award yesterday for being the best in her class, again. It's just that I have prevented her judgement from being influenced by what other people think.
At 16, my life was being caged. I was conforming to an image someone somewhere had created probably because they had a better chance of fitting into it. I was so shy of speaking to people; I felt they weren't listening to anything I had to say- not with my "hotter" twin standing beside me. I felt they were staring at the bumps on my face, the lack of sparkle in my eyes, the chip on my teeth, the size of my nose. I was curled up in a corner inside of me, so insecure. Being my twin, it didn't take long for my sister to notice I was a shadow of myself. One night, I broke down. It had been a long time coming. We shared a room before we went to college, and being a light-sleeper, I would have to stay awake and listen to her midnight calls with her boyfriend at the time. That night, I had had the last straw. I told her to go the other room to answer her call; after all, my little brother could sleep through a storm, literally. I had so much anger in my heart and she could hear it in my voice. As I threw jealous words at her, she knelt by my bed. She took my hand waiting for me to calm down. She was always the quieter one.
Everything I am going to say here today is a reconstruction of what she told me that night. Beauty, she said, in itself could be empty; particularly when it is superficial. Although she was surrounded by hundreds of guys who proclaimed their undying love for her, she never felt it was genuine. "I think all they want to do is tap that, to have me in the bag, another check on the list" she mentioned that night. She stated that although she enjoyed the attention she was getting from these guys, she knew it wasn't going to last forever. "Beauty is fleeting", she added "but you, you have something that could last forever" I remember looking at her as if to say "Don't give me any of that cheesy movie line". She read my look accurately. She stated that I was the more intelligent one, the brighter one. I wrote books, I sang in the choir, I played sports- I used to be proactive, until my acne phase came about.
I remember her passing a tissue as she picked up a Bible by my side. One thing I respect about her is that she always brings a biblical perspective to things, backing her advice up with scripture. She asked me to read 1 Peter 3, verses 3 and 4. I placed a slide up, showing the text from the passage. It's about not relying on makeup, jewellery and hair-dos to make you beautiful. It is about your spirit's demeanour in God's sight- gentle and quiet (a trusting and faithful spirit I assume). We had a lengthy discussion and I decided from that nighr, that I would work on my inner self and pay less attention to my outer.
You see, the society can simulate an image for you to follow, give tips for you to look that way and in about a year or two everything will change! So it's out with the wardrobe I spent loads of dollars on and in with the new- albeit on credit. I hardly realised that my sister was in some kind of beauty bondage, or bubble I would say 'cause it sounds less harsh, she knew that if she stopped impressing only with her looks, she would have nothing to fall back on. Even celebrities have been placed in that bubble, they have created a look we get used to and if they are ever caught off-guard, it is downhill for them. Take Naomi Campbell, a supermodel of a generation, for example. She's human, so she was bound to age. So, hair loss set in. I can assure you that so many entertainment channels were on her case for a long time. I felt so sorry for her. If, from the beginning, she had not used wigs or weaves all the time, then no one would be surprised.
I am not saying you should go out all scruffy and stuff. We are required to take care of ourselves; it's good for self-respect and self-appreciation. I am not saying you should not appreciate something or someone that looks good, but don't let their appearance be the be-all-and-end-all of that person. Beauty is fleeting. My first boyfriend was the hottest guy I had ever seen, but it's amazing how that beauty vanishes when the person constantly gets on your nerves and disrespects you; and as he had no other quality that interested me, I had to call it off. A waste of my time that was.
The truth is no one knows the complete meaning of perfection. Even the Bible says we shall know what perfection is when Jesus comes. But one thing to remember is that, man was created in the image of God, so surely we have a high degree of perfection already instilled in us! Leah, in the Bible, was not the fairest of all, it affected her emotionally. God saw this and decided to bless her with the wonderful gift of children. Imagine if she was like "I don't want kids, I want to be beautiful". Even if her prayer was answered, she probably would have lost her gifts, and youthful beauty would be lost with age.
Someone said, "a good heart radiates through and gives a lovely countenance". That is very true.
So, to round up, I would like to drop a final point, SimPerfection is just Imperfections with the 's' placed in front to make it look good.
Thank God they got it.
A little boy kicked his red mud-stained ball towards me. A little too high the kick was, as the ball bounced off my right knee, leaving a stain that was conspicuous. He ran up to me giggling, a very boisterous one, like he had no clue what he had done. He pointed to the ball, still inattentive to the frown that had formed on my face, which had on it clear signs of tiredness. Before he could say anything, I picked him up and spun him around, his little feet hanging high, drawing wide circles in space.
"Mummy, Mummy!" The little boy's older sister ran out of the house to give me a big hug. I dropped him on the ground and squeezed them both tight in a warm embrace. I had missed them and it was obvious that they had eagerly awaited my arrival. Joseph, my 4 year old boy, gave me a slightly wet kiss on my cheek and Deborah, a very smart 7 year old, wasn't slow in noticing the stain on my knee. I explained to her that it was her brother's fault and I could not help but smile when I watched them both chuckle simultaneously with Joseph framing his delicate face with his tiny hands. "Come on, let's go in", I said as I led them in. "It's Daddy's turn to cook!" I felt glad to be home.
As a motivational speaker, I get the opportunity to visit many places and give them a piece of my oversized mind. I love that I get paid to voice my opinions. Sometimes, it puts the audience in a good mood, full of colour and life after my speech. I do get treated as a celebrity after these particular talks- giving autographs and running out on business cards and other times, I leave the audience solemn, times before, I have been walked out on by a few angered listeners. This, today, was an example of the latter case and I could understand why.
The audience, consisting of students, their parents and the teachers of the esteemed Belleton Girls High School, Lakewood were chirpy and chatty as I took to the stage. I let them quiet down while I set up my presentation.
"SimPerfection", I started, "is short for Simulated Perfection". A few whispered. They had heard the term before, I had written a book that mentioned it and the book became a bestseller. "I remember watching a video on Youtube years ago, when I was 17 to be precise. It was an advert for a cosmetic product. For reasons I am not so sure about, the video showed how a model was converted from her real self to an image the advertisers thought was fit to portray to the product. It was a long process, and I'm telling you with Photoshop you could look like anything you want to, even Abraham Lincoln" I put up a picture of my husband made up to look like the prestigious president. Thankfully, it came across as comic.
"Not long after, a friend of mine introduced me to a website. She used it to try on her make-up before she bought them and found it useful to load a picture of herself onto that website to try out the suitable products it had on offer. The idea was quite attractive, until I realised that my skin tone in pictures was very different from reality. You'd think with that I'd abandon the website but instead, I began to spend many hours creating new looks of myself. Gradually,I went from trying on lipstick by Rimmel to altering my face to look different. I was knocked back to my senses when I inadvertently made a picture of myself to look like Kim Kardashian, who was described as an epitome of beauty in my day.
I'm writing a book at the moment called 'Being Leah'. How many of you know the story of
Going back to the media, it is funny how the media feed ideas into our minds isn't it? They say something is 'in' and automatically it trends. They say someone is beautiful and people go looking for makeup tips to look similar to that person. The media is the shepherd and there are so many sheep- they just follow. A few years ago, Dove, the cosmetic company, made a campaign that encouraged people not to follow the standard that the media had set concerning beauty. I realise that if you control people's perceptions about beauty you have a key to control their lives. I started doing these talks when I realised how much society has placed a burden on shoulders of young girls like you. Some of you struggle to look in the mirror when you wake up, you brush your teeth with your eyes closed! Girls as young as 8 years old are being made to diet! What did I know about dieting at that age? I didn't have a clue what the word was! I have a 7 year old daughter who still doesn't know there is such a word as 'ugly'! Don't get me wrong, she's not shallow; in fact she received an award yesterday for being the best in her class, again. It's just that I have prevented her judgement from being influenced by what other people think.
At 16, my life was being caged. I was conforming to an image someone somewhere had created probably because they had a better chance of fitting into it. I was so shy of speaking to people; I felt they weren't listening to anything I had to say- not with my "hotter" twin standing beside me. I felt they were staring at the bumps on my face, the lack of sparkle in my eyes, the chip on my teeth, the size of my nose. I was curled up in a corner inside of me, so insecure. Being my twin, it didn't take long for my sister to notice I was a shadow of myself. One night, I broke down. It had been a long time coming. We shared a room before we went to college, and being a light-sleeper, I would have to stay awake and listen to her midnight calls with her boyfriend at the time. That night, I had had the last straw. I told her to go the other room to answer her call; after all, my little brother could sleep through a storm, literally. I had so much anger in my heart and she could hear it in my voice. As I threw jealous words at her, she knelt by my bed. She took my hand waiting for me to calm down. She was always the quieter one.
Everything I am going to say here today is a reconstruction of what she told me that night. Beauty, she said, in itself could be empty; particularly when it is superficial. Although she was surrounded by hundreds of guys who proclaimed their undying love for her, she never felt it was genuine. "I think all they want to do is tap that, to have me in the bag, another check on the list" she mentioned that night. She stated that although she enjoyed the attention she was getting from these guys, she knew it wasn't going to last forever. "Beauty is fleeting", she added "but you, you have something that could last forever" I remember looking at her as if to say "Don't give me any of that cheesy movie line". She read my look accurately. She stated that I was the more intelligent one, the brighter one. I wrote books, I sang in the choir, I played sports- I used to be proactive, until my acne phase came about.
I remember her passing a tissue as she picked up a Bible by my side. One thing I respect about her is that she always brings a biblical perspective to things, backing her advice up with scripture. She asked me to read 1 Peter 3, verses 3 and 4. I placed a slide up, showing the text from the passage. It's about not relying on makeup, jewellery and hair-dos to make you beautiful. It is about your spirit's demeanour in God's sight- gentle and quiet (a trusting and faithful spirit I assume). We had a lengthy discussion and I decided from that nighr, that I would work on my inner self and pay less attention to my outer.
You see, the society can simulate an image for you to follow, give tips for you to look that way and in about a year or two everything will change! So it's out with the wardrobe I spent loads of dollars on and in with the new- albeit on credit. I hardly realised that my sister was in some kind of beauty bondage, or bubble I would say 'cause it sounds less harsh, she knew that if she stopped impressing only with her looks, she would have nothing to fall back on. Even celebrities have been placed in that bubble, they have created a look we get used to and if they are ever caught off-guard, it is downhill for them. Take Naomi Campbell, a supermodel of a generation, for example. She's human, so she was bound to age. So, hair loss set in. I can assure you that so many entertainment channels were on her case for a long time. I felt so sorry for her. If, from the beginning, she had not used wigs or weaves all the time, then no one would be surprised.
I am not saying you should go out all scruffy and stuff. We are required to take care of ourselves; it's good for self-respect and self-appreciation. I am not saying you should not appreciate something or someone that looks good, but don't let their appearance be the be-all-and-end-all of that person. Beauty is fleeting. My first boyfriend was the hottest guy I had ever seen, but it's amazing how that beauty vanishes when the person constantly gets on your nerves and disrespects you; and as he had no other quality that interested me, I had to call it off. A waste of my time that was.
The truth is no one knows the complete meaning of perfection. Even the Bible says we shall know what perfection is when Jesus comes. But one thing to remember is that, man was created in the image of God, so surely we have a high degree of perfection already instilled in us! Leah, in the Bible, was not the fairest of all, it affected her emotionally. God saw this and decided to bless her with the wonderful gift of children. Imagine if she was like "I don't want kids, I want to be beautiful". Even if her prayer was answered, she probably would have lost her gifts, and youthful beauty would be lost with age.
Someone said, "a good heart radiates through and gives a lovely countenance". That is very true.
So, to round up, I would like to drop a final point, SimPerfection is just Imperfections with the 's' placed in front to make it look good.
Thank God they got it.
Nice.
ReplyDeletehmmm... i think a discussion could be had on this. h/w the message is pretty clear. love d begining. a twist from the get go... u should follow that. really nice post bbes.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear your opinion Duntan
ReplyDeleteThank you Azuka