One of my favorite scenes in “Young Frankenstein” involves Eye-gor and his hump:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaPZZJVDx6Y[/youtube]Why do I love that scene? Because Eye-gor has no need to justify something that someone else sees as a flaw. To him, it’s just part of who he is.
I think that, as women, sometimes we work too hard to find out flaws. We look in the mirror, and rather than seeing a body that is 99.99% miraculous, we look for that age spot, that wrinkle, or that sagging body part.
I was a sick baby, and my doctor prescribed a lot of Tetracycline which proceeded to turn my teeth a lovely shade of gray. I was always self-conscious about that, until a dental lab technician (trying to match my teeth with a crown) called my teeth “calico.” Suddenly my teeth became a designer shade, and I felt much better about things.
Some women wear tortoise-shell sunglasses. I am accessorized with lovely calico teeth.
As a kid, however, the gray teeth brought taunts from other insecure kids. In addition, my eye teeth took forever to come in, hanging on as “fangs” for months. I would have been considered cool during these “Twilight” years. I could have pretended to be a vampire, just like my friend, Flavia, who had a mustache could have said she was becoming a werewolf. But we weren’t in the Twilight years; we were just unattractive.
These years were survived because of two literary companions – Pippi Longstocking and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
I cherish Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle because she lives in an upside down house and makes up her own rules. Plus, she really loves herself just the way she is.
Here’s an excerpt about how Ms. Piggle-Wiggle perceives her own hump:
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lives here in our town. She is very small and has a
hump on her back. When children ask her about the hump, she says, “Oh that’s a big lump of magic. Sometimes it turns me into a witch; other times into a dwarf or a fairy, and on special occasions it makes me into a queen.” The children are very envious of the hump because, besides being magic, it is such a convenient fastening place for wings.
That’s how you handle a hump. So, this week, take a look at yourself. Love every single bit of you. And when you are tempted to critique yourself, simply look in the mirror and say, “What hump?” Then fasten your wings on and fly.
Read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and you will fall in love with her too: