Beauty

Here comes the cheese that has made me famous, I am about to "write" about pop music and a deeper thought/meaning that occurred to me while listening to said pop music.

The other day I was in textual conversation (text messaging) with Ms. Maggie Flynn. She wrote, "Buy Christina Aguilera's new CD or DIE." This is typical whore posse language; we call each other whores, say 'do this or die,' or we talk about what big whores we are, blah, blah, blah. We're whores, deal and dig it.

Last night, I bought Ms. Augilera's album and I was surprised to find that it was more like a Greatest Hits Collection.Hey, it's an easy way to make a quick buck in an economy that's sluggish and it's working, people are buying it. After completing my purchase, I added her to my CD lineup (she is in between Miley Cyrus and Garbage in CD rotation), in case you are wondering.

Instantly, I am taken back to the Summer of 1999. It was the Summer before my senior year of high school, the days when I was modest and knew everything. "Genie in a Bottle" was blaring through my system and I couldn't contain myself, I sang aloud and I danced (and almost wrecked my car three-four times). It was completely cheesy and lovely and random and perfect.

Then her hit, "Beautiful," played. I hadn't heard it in quite sometime... and it struck a cord in me. When I was younger I loved the video, I loved the imagery, and the complexity of the actors in it. I thought that was what the song was about, difference.Her voice is haunting and so powerful, yep, I'll admit it I cried a little. I am going to blame that on the placebo pills in BC pack.

Still to this day, it is about our differences, embracing the diversity that is our mosaic world. However, it is so much more than that, at least more than my 18 year old omniscient mind could grasp. It's about the beauty in everything and everyone. Yes, we all have our issues, weaknesses, poor judgments, secrets that we would never reveal to another living soul. We all wear our masks and hide our dirty deeds. At the end of the day, each and every one of us does this. We are all creatures of deceit and faux pas and that's beautiful.

The moments of laughter we share, beautiful. The moments that cause our insides to split open, beautiful. The moments we connect with another life form, beautiful. The moments we do something we shouldn't have, beautiful. The moments we are at our worst, beautiful. The moments when we are at our absolute best, beautiful.

These paradoxical ironies that I mentioned are all beautiful. Each and every one of those moments compels such deep thought and such deep emotion. Those are the moments we are truly alive. When goose bumps appear on our skin, to the blood is pumping through our veins, when we get that feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Beauty.

I finally get what "the weird" kid in America Beauty was saying about the plastic bag in the wind. It was as if that bag had come alive with the wind and took on a life and dance of it's own. The wind being not something you can see, but something you most definitely can feel. Feelings no matter how good and how incredibly horrible they are are beautiful. Feelings remind us that we are alive.

So, to Ms. Flynn, thank you for threatening death upon me, that particular day I didn't feel like dying so I contributed to the economy and purchased. Thanks to you Mrs. Aguilera for reminding my that I am a "genie in a bottle" and that I, along with everyone else, am "Beautiful."

To each and every one of you reading this, you are beautiful no matter how dark your insides and no matter how unpleasing your outsides may be, kidding, well kind of, no I am. Let the cheese-fest terminate.

"No matter what we do 

No matter what we say  

We're the song inside the tune 

Full of beautiful mistakes 

And everywhere we go  

The sun will always shine 

But tomorrow we might awake 

On the other side."