The Beauty Experiment

I gave myself a challenge yesterday.

At the end of a long week, feeling rather, depleted and drab, I decided to board the subway train in the morning, go to work and move through my entire day viewing everyone I came in contact as beautiful. No matter who they were, how young or old, fat or thin--race, color, sex, or creed--I saw them through the lens of beautiful. I looked at their faces and say to myself, "He is beautiful, she is beautiful" and I connected the words meaningfully with each person.

I saw the grandmother with defiance on her face as beautiful

I saw the older woman turning the pages of her novel with long, elegant, bejeweled fingers as beautiful

I saw the construction worker with noble responsibility in his stride as beautiful

I saw the 350 pound man struggling to walk as beautiful.

And no joke, I saw the blond woman walking down 55th Street at 12 noon in a red ball gown and a tight black leather bolero as shocking, funny, and yes, beautiful.

Even if I couldn't immediately find each person I focused on as beautiful, I appreciated the care that each person took in choosing their clothes, the special flip or smoothness to their hair. The design of a pair of sunglasses, or a slow gait amid the frenzy of the city. I appreciated the roundness of a cheek, a mischievous smile, a bluest eye. What's wild is I started seeing everyone as whole, brilliantly hued and utterly possible, connected in a quietly divine and utterly simple way. The most important Jewish prayer, the Sh'ma (which means "hear") and expresses that "The Lord is one" popped into my head. I don't think I ever understood what this prayer really meant until I embarked on my little Beauty Experiment.

And at the end of the day, I bought red lipstick to wear on my lips--for the first time in eight months. I've been smiling ever since.