Summer Reflection #40: First Looks

Photos are a great way to track the passage of time.

We bought a letter board last year that sits in Smallsteps room with various messages on it throughout the year. But it was bought as a prop for a photograph on the first and the last day of the school years, so we can see how she changes over time. At some point, I assume her hair will be dyed black, with bone-white makeup, and heavy eyeliner.

At least she will match the board.

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But I am looking forward to seeing how this pans out long-term, because when life is lived together daily, a lot is missed through the slight incremental daily changes that take place. While I didn't think "that much" had changed over the last year, the pictures below from the first day of school last year, tell a different story.

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She has slightly less bunny fluff.

But still enough.

While I have taken lots of photos over the years, I do wish I had done some more series of pictures, so I could do a timelapse in the future. While I dislike selfies, I also wish I had started taking pictures of my own face, like one every month. It would have made for a pretty interesting view over a couple of decades and perhaps show some more nuance than what I have now, which is random pictures years apart. I do look very different - starkly so perhaps.

But, we all do, right?

I was just talking to my wife this morning about how people age and how silly it is to really worry that much about looks, because if we tie our identity to the way we look, we lose ourselves over time. I get why those Hollywood actors get so much surgery to "maintain" their youth, but when they look in the mirror, do they see themselves?

I have been thinking about if I would, and I don't think so. I reckon that while I might not like all the changes that take place, once altering those changes and inserting features that aren't mine naturally, I would become more critical. Perhaps this is why the stars end up so messed up, because they start to judge their own faces, as if they belong to someone else entirely.

Looks have always been important to our species, but I think that now, looks have taken precedence over skills. Rather than looking to improve ourselves to make us valuable, we try to improve our looks to look the part of value. This is of course driven by market supply too, because improving personal skills makes less money for corporations, than selling looking the part.

Taraz
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