Looking beautiful...to ourselves

Inspiration can be found in the most unusual places. I wasn't expecting to find wisdom in the TV series Castle this week while watching re-runs with my roommate.

Castle is a crime drama about a mystery novelist who helps the NYPD homicide department solve murders. Rick Castle also has a 15-year-old daughter and a mother who lives with him.

His mother, Martha (played by the lovely Susan Sullivan), makes the following statement to her son while helping her grand-daughter shop for her first prom dress.

"She already has body-image issues. It's an intrinsic part of being a woman. Every woman in the world has some part of herself that she absolutely hates: her hands are too small, her feet are to big, her hair too straight, too curly, her ears stick out, her butt's too flat, her nose is too big. And you know, nothing you can say will change how we feel. What men don't understand is the right clothes, the right shoes, the right make-up, it just hides the flaws we think we have. They make us feel beautiful...to ourselves. That's what makes us look beautiful to others."

I believe that this is what fashion is all about: looking beautiful to ourselves so we can radiate the confidence and contentment that the world sees and identifies as beauty.

And who said that there's nothing good on television? (I would actually recommend this TV series. It's quite good!)