It's just a body...it's not like it's permanent

A lot of people seem to put a lot of emphasis on their looks. I know people that have had surgery to fix some bad thing and then had plastic surgery just to clean up the scars. While it certainly isn't a crime to look good or even take pride in your looks. However I think it is a little obsessive to go to extreme measures to retain a belief that you are still young.

For example, I met a woman on the bike trail that looked amazing from 500 feet away. Her tan and tight legs were jogging down the trail very confidently and her breasts were swaying in perfect unison. From a distance she looked amazing. But when I got closer and allowed my eyes to notice the fine details, it became clear that she had surgery done on nearly every part of her body. The tan was fake and had been for many years. Saggy, tanned, leathery flesh covered her upper chest and neck and her face was one that had obviously been lifted. I said hello as I rode past and she flashed me a terrifyingly bright smile of perfect teeth. I'll admit that parts of her looked very good, but when combined, it looked like a sad older lady desperately attempting to cling to her younger beauty. And don't act like you don't know what I mean. We've all seen people try hard to look young, cool, pretty and natural. Hard to believe people actually try to look natural, but it happens.

I think about myself. I have three stab wounds, slices where I had a chest tube, scars from where I had a cyst removed, and a trachea tube installed. There is even a place where I had a stomach tube for a few weeks. It looks like a misplaced belly button. My legs are tracked with remnants of scrapes, cuts, and injuries of all sorts. And while I will never be accused of being a supermodel, I know who I am, and I know people that love me and accept me no matter how I look. Because of that, I feel good about myself and that makes everyone around look at you with a different eye.

A friend of mine was worried about the scaring from vascular bypass surgery. It looks like someone tried to lop off her head with an ax, slicing down through her shoulder. Not to mention the scars from where she had the other vessels rerouted. She is alive. And were it not for those scars, the blood clot may have entered her heart and she would have died. So what is better, to be alive and scarred beyond belief or to be dead with a perfect complexion?

A body...it's just clothing for your soul.