Guest Blogger Lorie Sheffer: Who says?

A clearing of weeds

 

(photo: Lorie Sheffer stumbled upon a clearing of ‘weeds’… and MLC is unable, despite trying, to reposition the photo to portrait… any ideas?)

Lorie’s post:

Who decides what is desirable and what is not?

Who decides which flowers are weeds that need to be eradicated and which flowers should be sold at a high price at the garden center?

Who decides which animals get to be our beloved pets and which get to be our beloved dinner? We wouldn’t eat a peacock or a flamingo, but we can’t wait for that Thanksgiving turkey; they are all birds. We think it barbaric that there are countries where dogs, cats and horses are part of the diet, and yet there are countries where our national cow consumption is seen as equally disgusting.

Who sets the standard of beauty? Why was actress Lillian Russell, 200 pounds, considered to be the most celebrated beauty of her time in the early 1900s? Botticelli’s “Venus” and pretty much every female painted by Peter Paul Rubens would be considered overweight by today’s standard of beauty. Will there be a time when we celebrate that first gray hair or bald spot, or that first laugh line, instead of coloring or hair replacement or Botox injections? Will aging be seen as “becoming more attractive”?

Walking through the woods I came to a clearing of “weeds”. I decided they were beautiful. We all have the power to choose our own standards, despite what society dictates.

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