It’s soon spring. Synonymous with visual beauty, this time of year is a feast of color and bloom for the eyes and a feast of life reborn for the soul. So it’s no wonder that when we look at our fellow man or woman that we seek visual beauty. And I am sure it is there. But this week’s epiphany is that there is something more beautiful – and it’s everything that is vulnerable, lacking, and incapable. It is everything that is human.
The word humanity itself has always, for me, meant that darker side. The stuff we don’t want anyone to see because it is not air-brushed perfection. When someone speaks of your humanity, they are not talking about the outside you dress up and show to everyone else. It’s your limitations. It’s what you can’t do, or won’t do because the psychological and physical scars of life somehow hold you back. Or maybe you just hold yourself back. It’s the fear, the anger, and the ultimate vulnerability that underlies them both. On the chance that someone lets us see their raw humanity, it is the most beautiful thing they can offer. Seeing those vulnerabilities, inabilities and not-so-proud-of-it moments in others lets us know that the same raw humanity in ourselves is OK. It’s OK to be human and not perfect. It’s OK to have scars; we all do. But it’s more than OK. It’s the true beauty in each of us.
So maybe next time we see each other, let’s not focus on the clothes, the makeup, the outside. Let’s see each other for the scars, vulnerabilities, inabilities, and the truly beautiful stuff we try to hide. Not because we try to hide it, but because that is who we really are. What would the world be if we could appreciate each other like that? Maybe we could see the true beauty in ourselves too.
Just as the real beauty and excitement of spring is in the renewed life, not the in the flower; the real beauty of people is in the raw humanity. I challenge you this: look in the mirror today and see the real you, in all it’s so-called limitations. Know that even if no one else does, I think your raw humanity is the most wonderful thing about you. Congratulate yourself on being human and just for today, make it OK to be just that.
