Skin Deep

Skin Deep

written by Noelle Rose Andressen July 28, 2017 copyright
Based on a "LIVE facebook video" transcribed by Anne S.

Good morning. I hope everyone is having a wonderful, beautiful day. As I traveled on my day today, I noticed one of my friends on social media was posting something beautiful and it made me think a lot. Actually, two people posted something very similar. It’s about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Thank you to my two beautiful friends who were posting that. 

I think that pretty much everyone knows by now that I’m legally blind which means my vision is deteriorating. I have glaucoma and my peripheral vision is shrinking. That means things on the side are not seen well if at all. I used to have really outstanding peripheral vision and as a dancer I really appreciated that.

When I was reflecting upon “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, I thought that’s such a beautiful sentiment. What is that going to mean for me as my vision deteriorates further. I don’t know what the outcome is going to be. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Not to feel sorry for myself at all but to change it up, what does it mean or what will it then to me: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”? if I don't have my vision any longer.

We all get older, let’s just talk about that reality first. As we get older we age. Things happen, graying of the hair, our skin gets thinner, we lose all that cute little baby fat that we had and the circles and dark lines under our eyes get more pronounced. Our features change a little bit and our skin doesn’t do what we want it to do or what it used to do. We can’t eat the things that we used to eat, (although I don’t know how good it is to eat some of the things we used to eat. I didn’t have such a great diet when I was younger.)

What does that mean for us then, when beauty leaves us? Or our vision leaves us so we can't see? Where is the beauty then? We all talk about inner beauty, but what is inner beauty? I guess that’s going to be in the “eye of the beholder” too.

That tells me that it’s all about character and it’s all about personality. Our bodies are great. We all have this carriage, this vessel, this body, but what goes beyond it when beauty is fleeting (as they say) and like for me or some of you also have vision issues too, my heart goes out to you too. What do we do when we no longer can see the beauty of a rose or a butterfly; what do we do? For us as human beings when we relate to one another where do we go from there? Where is the beauty then?

I really believe it is in your character.

I thought maybe this gives me an opportunity to keep thinking and keep refining my character traits, my personality. No one has “arrived” no body’s perfect and nobody will be perfect so don’t be hard on yourself. I’m not cool all the time. I can lose it just like the rest of you can. We’re not perfect beings and to put somebody up on that pedestal (they’re always here, they’re always perfect, level headed), you’re setting them up to fail and you’re setting yourself up to look badly upon somebody because of that. That’s not character traits, that’s having stress. That’s having a moment; we all have them.

How about a behavioral character trait? If I’m more peaceful, does that make me a more beautiful person in the eye of the beholder? I guess it could but to me, what I want to work on (and sure that’ll help me and make me more easy to be around and not be stressed – I have a high stress job, and it makes it easier for everybody, well ok well that’s good.) and what is even more beautiful, at least to me, is somebody who speaks the truth in kindness and love; somebody who loves somebody and holds them accountable for wrong doing. Somebody who sees the best in somebody when no one else can. These are beautiful character traits. It’s all about giving, notice how that is? At least it is for me.

As I age, and as I lose my vision too, I want to be around people who can appreciate good character traits. I also want to be a person that has good character traits. Not that outer beauty is not appreciated. It’s what attracts us to people or things. It makes you say, “Oh let’s inspect this a little further and see what kind of beauty is there.” So you go a little bit further and a little bit deeper and you find out “Ok, that’s not just beautiful on the surface there’s beauty within too.”

Dwelling upon all this gave me another moment and another opportunity to become a better person and also to refine my character traits and also to rise above the mire and do the best that I can.

I won't give up, you don't give up!

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Noelle Andressen is an Emmy nominated writer, producer and music arranger. She has authored the 5 book series: "Dance Warrior" Book Series. The first book is set to be released very soon. She is also a dancer-choreographer that has had the privilege of being photographed by legendary dance photographer Lois Greenfield (photo release 2016). She's known for her many works on camera as an actress and behind the lens as a story-teller with her screenplays. She took this skill and applied it to her dance company: Rubans Rouges Dance and creates thought provoking "Dance Drama" that beckons you to "Feel the Experience" (TM/slogan mark).