Appearances

Why do we care so much about appearances? The movie, Mona Lisa Smile, is about a forward-thinking art professor who gets hired to Wellesley Girls School, because she wants to make a difference. The movie shows the mould for young girls that existed in the 1950s in the United States, to be the perfect housewife. Even if life inside the perfectly painted house with matching door and window trim wasn't peachy, it was supposed to look like it to all outside eyes. They passed these values down to their children. Their children passed perfectionist characteristics on to their children. So here we are, grandchildren of perfect housewives of the 50s, caught up with perfectionistic tendencies, but living with a knowledge and in a society in which none of it really matters. But the facade is still there. We can try to tell ourselves that the things we do and the decisions we make have holistic reasons with a purpose behind them, but to a degree, whatever it may be, it's all about appearances.



So what I've discovered is that no matter how much I hate that it's always about appearances, and no matter how much I criticize others for caring so much about appearances, I like things to be ok, from the outside. I care about appearances. Even though, and especially when I don't want to.

Our table on a typical Friday when we've been painting our hall