In praise of beauty

Since yesterday evening, the most transformative realisation has occurred. As of 2pm today I find it impossible to not smile. Why? Because I have teeth again! After 4 days of hiding my face from the world, practicing my seductive "Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen lips closed and slightly upturned at the corners" smile, discovering what the strong silent types might experience in their daily life, and cancelling all unnecessary appointments, I am confident to again walk down the street, flash my pearly whites and engage people in conversation.

So the realisation is that it actually doesn't matter how you look "oh, your missing teeth are barely noticeable," what's important is how you think you look. Today as I walked down the street, I wanted to grin at everyone, I wanted everyone to notice my smile, I wanted to bare my teeth just so people would stop and say "are those new? how lovely." Of course, the reason I want to do this is because they look like they were never broken and so no one will notice they aren't mine. For the past few days, I've huddled in my corner office avoiding human contact, and to be perfectly honest I've been quite cranky. I blame my crankiness at least partially on starving (liquid diets work so well, I've discovered, because they cause you to lose weight regardless of whether that is the primary goal or not). Today I finished every sentence with a smile, if I forgot to smile I played with my teeth until I remembered how nice they were and smiled. I wanted to speak with people, to be in public, to smile!

So for everyone who is debating a new haircut, or whether to join the current decades' fashion trends, or to get braces, my advice is to do it! You may not realise just how cranky you currently are, until you rise above yourself and can't stop smiling with inner joy at how lovely you think you look, even if no one else agrees.