Skin Deep

Tonight Scarlett was jumping on the bed totally in the buff yelling, “I love candy!” She was so completely in the moment and so at ease with herself and her place in the world, I felt a mix of emotions. On the one hand, it is wonderful that she has such passion and lack of baggage, but, on the other hand, I feel fear for how fragile that confidence and abandon can be. In her mind (and in ours), she is perfect just like she is. Her body does everything she needs it to do--jumping, running, dancing--and she never even thinks about diets or calories or if that diaper makes her butt look big. She has never worried that her nose is too big or her hair isn’t the right style. She doesn’t ask if her ears stick out or obsess over freckles. She just loves her self, her body, her life, her family, and, apparently, candy. When she was done jumping, she flung herself on the bed and started making comforter angels while laughing like a fiend. I wanted to freeze the moment and save it forever. I want her to feel that much at home in own skin for all her life. But that won’t be easy because she is a girl in a culture that begins assaulting the self-image of girls from the time they get here. We’ll just have to keep trying like Sooki in Kathryn and Byron Jackson’s The Saggy Baggy Elephant. Wish us luck.

http://www.amazon.com/Saggy-Elephant-Little-Golden-Storybook/dp/0307160289

http://www.papertigers.org/wordpress/tag/kathryn-and-byron-jackson/