only words

I’ve become fascinated, admittedly bordering on obsessed, with TED Talks regarding self image, concepts of beauty, and self esteem. A theme has emerged over the course of this project, which I will be exploring more deeply during the remainder of this month’s blogging challenge. There is literally more to it than meets the eye, which ironically makes the foregoing make up experiment one big metaphor, since make up can either cover up or enhance, depending on the intention. Like much in life, it only has the meaning we give it.

Stepping back a bit from the daily posts, I was concerned that I’d gotten onto a soap box of sorts. Looking at this more deeply, I wondered if it wasn’t a way to deflect my self consciousness about the whole topic to begin with. Really, who can sustain 30 days of observations about one’s experience about one’s appearance? And who would want to read about it? Thankfully, this review reminded me that my original intention was to engage in behavior that made me uncomfortable until I was comfortable. Some could say this was boiling the frog, and they wouldn’t be wrong in that assessment. This frog is cooked.

There is SO much information by way of statistics, studies, articles, books, and talks over the past half century regarding women and self image based on society’s expectations imposed by advertising that to make sense of it all in a neat presentation is a monumental task. Each and every piece I reviewed and studied lead me to many more pieces of information, which became overwhelming, but I’ve stuck with that research and am glad I did.

Then I realized something that didn’t seem to be such a big deal and  it hit me HARD.

I will edit these words. Then I will format them to fit the platform, in this case – WordPress. And then I will look at the ‘copy’ with a ‘different eye’ to see where I need to break up the words to give the eye a break when reading, so I might attract the reader’s attention.

That’s when I realized that I am doing to my writing what I do to my face.

I am modifying and adjusting the original content to be appealing. Reader-worthy.  Marketable. I am not sharing my original thoughts without editing and enhancing. Just like I’ve done with my appearance. And I would say that I’ve come full circle — and why I’ve chosen to forego make up to experience the depth of discomfort that I would if I were to reveal my thoughts and conclusions in writing.

I don’t know if you’ve made it this far in my post today. If you have, please accept my deep gratitude. Without editing, this may seem rambling and unclear. Trust me, I have never been more clear in my life! I am not necessarily comfortable publishing this without doing more than checking spelling and grammar, which to me is like washing my face and brushing my teeth when writing. But it’s taken me a long time to get here and I appreciate your sticking with me on this. I am posting this without bells and whistles, without images or visuals to ease the eye or entertain outside of my original thoughts.

Today, what you see is what you get.

Copyright 2014 by Donna Cerame. All rights reserved.