The Birth of Beauty

Where does beauty come from? When do we first become acquainted with this concept? When does it come to dominate our decisions and our visions, or does it? Do some of us escape concerns about being beautiful and having beautiful things and carving a beautiful life better than others? Is this escape even a good thing?

Middle Girl is aware. Of beauty. She looks at herself in the mirror, makes little faces. When I put her clothes on, she remarks that her dress is pretty. When I am wearing earrings, she pulls my hair aside and smiles, I like them. Your earrings. When we go out outside, she looks up, and around, and says, Look, Mommy. It's a beautiful day.

Her older sister never did this. She is observant, and wildly so, but in a different way. She doesn't spend time in front of the mirror (or as much time), she doesn't comment on my clothes or the brilliance of the day. She notices other things - how her sister's toy stroller has a wiggly handle or how the pantry has lost "electrishitty"... Ultimately, she seems oblivious to questions of appearance and beauty. So far.

Anyway. Not sure where this is going exactly, but I am thinking today about beauty, about where and when it's born, about why some of us are so fixated on it, about how it can be that two girls raised by the same parents in the same home can have such different views of things...

When did you become aware of the concept of beauty? When did your kids become aware of it? As parents and people, how much should beauty matter or not matter? Do you think on some level Middle Girl is just differentiating herself from her big sis, or do you think she's just a different creature and essentially so?