Of Mannequins and Princesses

Mannequins and princesses. They have more in common than a penchant for wearing fancy duds.

Two web links were shared with me recently. And though the links are different, they are thematic mirrors of each other.

The first is a video depicting the construction of mannequins. These mannequins were designed to reflect the bodies of disabled people. With exquisite precision, models were measured and mannequins were made in their exact physical proportions. When the mannequins were completed, they were dressed in high end clothing and displayed in the window of an upscale store.

The most gripping moment in that video is when one of the disabled models passes by the mannequin created in her likeness. She stops and gazes at it from top and bottom. Then she smiles with a satisfaction that squeezes my heart every time I see the video. That woman saw herself reflected in the world.

Finally.

The second link was an article about a five year old girl with leukemia who is facing her next round of chemotherapy. Devastated at the thought of losing her hair again, the child told her mother that she won’t look like a princess anymore.

Arrangements were swiftly made with a photographer and a party planning company to do a photo shoot of the little girl. In spite of the fact that she was balding from the effects of chemo, she dressed up like a princess in a flowing, shiny dress. The model who came to the photo shoot was similarly attired in a shimmering princess gown. She was also wearing a bald cap. The little girl’s smile and delight sent tears of joy down the faces of those present, especially when the child said, “She looks like me.”

Seeing ourselves as part of the world is important to us. It is not hype or new age fluff. #Colormyshelf, for example, is a Twitter hashtag devoted to sharing children’s books that feature characters of color. Human beings want to see themselves in books, in stories, in role models, and advertising. Adults and children need this.

Not only do people hunger to see themselves reflected in the media, but able-bodied children need to see that disabled people are part of the human landscape. White folk should see way more than themselves reflected in literature and advertising. And why can’t beauty standards be inclusive of good hair days, bad hair days, and no hair days?

Writers can write with this intention. Artists can create with this intention. Our language can shift to accommodate this intention. And in the meantime, anyone who can speak can tell stories that include people of all abilities, looks, and heritages. Spoken stories allow listeners to manufacture the pictures in the stories – pictures of themselves and others. The more we do this, the less it will seem like news and the more it will become an everyday, natural part of life.

Use words and create visuals with the same impulse that sparked the creation of uniquely shaped mannequins and a family’s princess moment of glory. That is what mannequins and princesses have in common.

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Copyright 2015 The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit:
By thebrandery (Flickr: The Brandery Winter Edition 2010) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Beauty and the Branding Beast

Let’s face it. Faces matter. But why must they matter so much?

The actor Renee Zellweger is facing the music because her face looks different. This has ignited a bonfire of speculation about whether she had “work” done; Ms. Zellwegger indicates that her changed look reflects nothing more than a healthy change in her lifestyle. Jennifer Gerson Uffalossy of The Guardian doesn’t wonder what is wrong with Ms. Zellweger’s appearance, but rather what is wrong with us for making such a big deal of it. Good question.

THE PROBLEM

Steve Rose suggests that a performer’s face can be his or her brand. Consumers expect predictability about brands. We want that boxed cereal to taste exactly the same every time we eat it.

So, generally speaking, by branding actors’ faces, it suggests that those faces mustn’t change.

The only problem with this is that human beings are designed to shift and morph. Change is a biological imperative. The world marches on. And the passage of time is etched into our souls and onto our faces.

I’m on the brandwagon about this celebrity issue because branding performers bothers me in certain contexts. Expecting actors to remain youthful and unchanging saturates society with a desire to freeze the world at the age of 26. The personal and societal consequences of this addiction to perpetual youth, not to mention Photoshopped standards of beauty, has been expressed a thousand times over. The fountain of youth is an unattainable holy grail that distracts us from what is really important. We all know that.

But branding does something more. It can handcuff performing artists by preventing them from exploring new terrain and growing their art.

I know a marvelous storyteller who shares funny tales about his life as a kid. He performs semi-regularly at a particular storytelling festival. One year, he told a serious, long form story about an important historical figure. Though it was a beautifully crafted piece with golden thematic threads linking past and present, the audience didn’t accept it. They couldn’t hear it for the art it was. Not because it wasn’t good, but because it wasn’t his brand. His trademark goofball antics (aka “LOL” moments) were not part of that piece. The storyteller was stuck with his brand, whether he liked it or not. A humorist doing drama? It takes time for audiences to warm up to that, if they accept it at all.

Audiences are powerful. That is why artists strive to connect with their audience. But here is the heart of my concern: Do artists connect to audiences as brands or as people? Can artists be authentic if they are hog-tied to a brand?

It is certainly true that branding is important in business. And the performing arts are a business. Still, while branding can help a performing artist connect with the right audiences, it can also be limiting.

Creativity needs to exist outside the box, inside the box, without the box, and anywhere else it wants to be. If branding locks people up in a box, creativity may not thrive. And if artists are hampered, then what they bring to their audiences suffers.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Whether people are celebrities or not, we can applaud the changes that life brings instead of sniggering at them.

We can fashion brands for performing artists that incorporate change as part of the brand, so that life and artistic transformations are anticipated and appreciated.

Even though the arts are a product and art is a business, artists are not boxes of cereal. The signature of the arts is growth, development, and change. If artists don’t try new things, their work suffers. So does art. Branding can stifle creativity. It certainly caused quite an uproar when one woman was altered by time, surgery, or lifestyle changes.

Let’s allow Ms. Zellweger, other performing artists, and everyone else to be who they need to be. There’s no need to brand them like cattle. We can remain open to what they have to offer. There is beauty in change and delicious depth in the lines that mark the passage of time. C’mon society! Let’s do an about face and applaud for that.

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Copyright 2014 The Storycrafters

Photo Credit: By Billy Hathorn (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Branding is a hot topic (no pun intended). I was recently on a Twitter chat with independent artists. The topic of branding came up and it sparked a lively debate. What do you think? How do we brand performing artists? Should the arts be branded at all? Any artists out there with an opinion on this? Love to have a conversation…share your thoughts in the comment box down below.

Why We Need to Spin it Ourselves

Think about warm, fresh-out-of-the oven muffins. Tasty for sure, they can be desirable, happy, delights for carbo-gluten-dairy tolerant people. But that’s not all. Muffins have muffin tops. Torn from the muffin bottoms, their crunchy shells and feathery interiors are savored first or saved for last by hard-core muffin top lovers.

But muffin tops on human waists are not as popular. The only thing they have in common with the desirability of the cake is the desire to rip them off.

The Urban Dictionary provides yet another of its memorable hip definitions and usage examples for muffin top:

When a woman wears a pair of tight jeans that makes her flab spill out over the waistband, just like the top of a muffin sits over the edge of the paper case.

Jeez, check out the Muffin Top on that chick! *shudder

If the Urban Dictionary can be said to provide definitions of culture,” *shudder tells you about how muffin tops are perceived. And because of this, people try to exercise them away. People try to hide them under sweaters. People try not to grow them because culture frowns on pounds. Culture shudders.

But really, who exactly decides what things are desirable or shudder-worthy?

I woke to a wonderful link that reminded me how anyone can take back that power and decide these things for themselves. Anyone can choose the spin. It’s in the words we choose and the attitude we use. That’s what makes all the difference.

The link was a Youtube video by Erin Keaney, a mama who raps with pride about her muffin top. It is her badge of parenting. And her video is awesome. Writers and storytellers and anyone can learn from her example.

In her rap, Erin tells how her muffin tops came about. She raps about her fighting efforts to vanquish her opponent with Rocky style commitment. Ultimately, she gives up muffin top fighting. But not in despair! Erin turns the whole thing around and embraces her muffin top. Erin takes joy in her muffin top and her winsome, winning video gives me joy in her muffin tops too.

We don’t have to accept all the images put forth in the media. We can take control of the images in context, attitude, and in how we use our words. We can change the connotations associated with words and phrases. It’s all in how we spin it.

Sure, muffin tops can remain hidden in the cupboard of our bulky knits. Or we can shout from the rooftops and proudly shake ’em, like Erin does. As storytellers and writers, teachers and parents, we can shake anything up in the words we use and in the mood we create in the telling of our stories.

Muffin tops are a fact of life for so many people, especially for those of us in the Mama Club. Next time I look with disdain in the mirror, I think I’ll go watch Erin’s video instead.

If we carry our muffin tops with joy, we won’t create dreaded fear of muffin tops for future generations. If we teach children to shudder, they will shudder. If we reinforce the shudder, anyone, not just children, can have distaste for self and others.

Instead, choose your words carefully. Choose the way you utter them. Choose the way characters respond to them. Choose to shatter the shudder with the words you utter.

— Jeri

What other issues do you think you can put your own spin on? Have you already done this? Please share in the comments! I’d love to hear and will comment/visit back.

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Copyright 2014 The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Reimagining Beauty – Z is for Zest

If you are new to this blog, welcome!

For my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I am writing about how storytellers, writers, parents, teachers (in other words, just about anyone) can reimagine beauty to be more inclusive. That way, people with disabilities, varying body types and racial backgrounds, etc. (in other words, anyone) can feel and be recognized by the world as the beauties they truly are.

Reimagining Beauty – Z is for Zest

I struggled with what to choose for my Z word – zeal, zealous, and zest were the contenders. According to Thesaurus.com, zest is a synonym for zeal. That is good, because zeal rhymes with veal and zealous rhymes with jealous and in Autocorrect style, my ear and eye replace the Z’s with the other letters every time. Since I don’t care to associate beauty with jealousy or baby animals on plates, I am going with zest.

Besides, ZEST makes a great acrostic.

Zing
Excitement
Strength
Truth

I know an educational leader who overflows with zing – she is also strong and truthful about what excites her. Her heart beats with the heritage of her nation. A female Atlas, she carries her country’s culture on her shoulders and broadcasts it joyfully to everyone. Her pride is strong, her manner is electrified with purpose and panache. Anyone near feels her passion and is inspired to explore her culture and/or their own. A grand dame of beauty, she is zest incarnate.

We all know people like this. Their zesty fire is invigorating. We also know story characters with passion coursing through them. Zest and passion beautifies people and story characters. It changes their skin and eyes and the way they carry themselves. They glow. They shine. They electrify.

Young people launching into their lives often carry such a zesty beauty – they are full of hope and optimism and have the verve and nerve to make it so. But that kind of beauty is not reserved for the young and able-bodied. Anyone of any age or bearing can be beautiful for their zest! The woman I spoke of earlier is a grandmother who is close to retirement. And she is gloriously beautiful.

As we think about what it means to be beautiful and what attracts others, let’s remember this quality. Zesty souls breathe color and piquancy into the landscape of the world. You can describe the zesty as the beauties in your stories, adding zest to the hearts and minds of readers and listeners. Remember the educational leader who carries her culture on her shoulders like Atlas? Be zesty like her and shake up the world – you will make a world of difference for those who hear or read your stories.

I hope you will use the power of your words to Reimagine Beauty.

The A to Z Challenge has been a delight and privilege to participate in. I have one more post though, as I am ever just outside the box and a bit beyond the rules. Not a 27th letter though! See, as a writer/storyteller, I like literary balance. Since the first A to Z post came prior to the letter A with the Great Theme Reveal – I want to bookend this by sharing one more post, after the letter Z, a mini-epilogue of sorts. Look out for that soon. Thanks for reading and stay in touch.

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Copyright 2014 The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Reimagining Beauty – Y is for YES!

If you are new to this blog, welcome!

For my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I am writing about how storytellers, writers, parents, teachers (in other words, just about anyone) can reimagine beauty to be more inclusive. That way, people with disabilities, varying body types and racial backgrounds, etc. (in other words, anyone) can feel and be recognized by the world as the beauties they truly are.

Reimagining Beauty – Y is for YES!

My friend Meg suffers from cancer. Thankfully, she will be fine, but to get to that state she must make a dramatic journey through the trials of chemo, invasive surgery, and recuperation.

In spite of her suffering, her outlook is positive, happy, bright, and optimistic. She makes sunshine dim.

You see, each and every step of her journey has been punctuated with a resounding “YES!”

YES! We caught it in time.

YES! My friends and family love me.

YES! I have complaints and fears (who wouldn’t?) but I talk about them so I can clear the decks and bring my YES! on.

YES! I can withstand this.

YES! I have confidence in my doctors.

YES! I will survive.

With all her hardships, she remembers her blessings. She blogs about gratitude on CaringBridge. Though her course of treatment makes daily blogging impossible, she remembers the good and shouts it out in cyberspace.

YES and yowza, she is beautiful.

YES people, as Barbara Fredrickson’s research is now confirming, are more likely to be healthier than their pessimistic counterparts. In their recent reviews of research, both James Clear of the Huffington Post and Emily Esfahani Smith of the Atlantic Monthly agree that optimism yields actual benefits to brain and body. In my view, this suggests that the power of positive thinking is a good and beautiful thing.

There are many ways that people sparkle with the beauty of optimism. When they challenge themselves, try new things, start, take risks, and look for the promise of roses instead of shadows around the next corner, they are doing the YES thing. Maybe they meditate, maybe they write, but whenever they are optimistic and effervescent, they nourish themselves and are inspiring to others.

Say YES! to a more inclusive definition of beauty. Say YES! to people who might not feel beautiful because popular culture defines and proliferates a limited range of images of beauty. Give everyone models of gorgeous optimism in stories, writings, and in what you say.

Say YES! to beautiful, positive thinking so that negative thoughts about beauty can fly away just like Meg’s illness will.

What do you think? Is optimism a beautiful thing?
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Copyright 2014 The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Reimagining Beauty – X is for eXpressive

If you are new to this blog, welcome!

For my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I am writing about how storytellers, writers, parents, teachers (in other words, just about anyone) can reimagine beauty to be more inclusive. That way, people with disabilities, varying body types and racial backgrounds, etc. (in other words, anyone) can feel and be recognized by the world as the beauties they truly are.

Reimagining Beauty – X is for eXpressive

Okay, I cheated a little with this letter and the notation of the word. I imagine that other A to Z bloggers did too…:)

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Thanks to Mrs. Friefeld, my 6th grade teacher, I endured a lot of spelling tests. The word “expressive” was on none of them.

She did, however, teach me how to spell “wheelbarrow.” She also spoke avidly about writing vividly. With over 56 million hits on my browser for the search term “vivid writing,” the web seems to concur with her.

Vivid language is expressive. Writers use it to evoke images and to beautify writing. Storytellers compose vivid text which they bring to life with expressive performance techniques. So, vivid text and vivid expression combine to make the art of storytelling beautiful.

And what does this have to do with the beauty of people?

Everything.

If expressiveness in written and spoken stories is beautiful, then expressiveness in people is too.

Wonderfully kaleidoscopic, expressive faces can evince every tint, form, and nuance of the human experience. Recognizing love, happiness, joy, warmth, mischief, laughter, sadness – we read expressions as easily as we read books, blogs, movies, and memes. Talk about images in action!

One of my friends is a visual artist with a very quiet personality. Typically pensive and serious, her everyday face is a motionless pond on a hot, summer day. But when she experiences joy or moments of inspiration, her face flickers, then morphs completely into an open flower. Her eyes and mouth widen, the edges of her lips curl upward in a secret-holding smile. It is not only how she looks after she sheds the pond for the flower, but the entire process of the transformation that defines her eye-grabbing beauty.

We are naturally drawn to expressive people. Actors attract us for a reason. Not because they look a certain way, but because they can make us look at them or issues in a certain way. Human transformers, they can be any character in any mood. If they are good at their art, we believe them. That is the kind of beauty I wish our culture more actively promoted about celebrities and actors.

But as writers and storytellers and conversationalists, we can promote that kind of beauty in the words we use to create images. We can include anyone in such depictions of beauty! It is not the precise features on a face that fit a formula. It is not skin color or complexion. That kind of reductionism strip mines beauty. A beautiful face is expressive because all of its parts belong together.

I challenge you to be beautifully expressive about the beauty in the expressive. Describe it vividly so that others can see it. And don’t forget how to spell “wheelbarrow.”

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Copyright 2014. The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Reimagining Beauty – W is for Wisdom

If you are new to this blog, welcome!

For my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I am writing about how storytellers, writers, parents, teachers (in other words, just about anyone) can reimagine beauty to be more inclusive. That way, people with disabilities, varying body types and racial backgrounds, etc. (in other words, anyone) can feel and be recognized by the world as the beauties they truly are.

Reimagining Beauty – W is for Wisdom

When people think of The Good Witch of the North, they immediately think of a glamorous witch called Glinda. But there is no such character in the book from whence she came – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

There is Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. Dorothy visits her at the end of the book. The woman who Dorothy encounters early on in the story, in Munchkinland, is called The Witch of the North. Her name is not Glinda, and she is not a bubble-riding glam girl. The Witch of the North is described as an ancient and wrinkled old woman.

Does this surprise you? It surprised me, growing up as I did on the movie version of the story.

Since I love to parody and fracture familiar stories, I wrote an offbeat rap of the book (puns always intended). My Witch of the North is old and wrinkly, as Baum wrote her. But I carry his idea few steps further. I describe her as an old and wise crone – and Dorothy finds her beautiful.

In my version, Dorothy recognizes the true beauty of the wonderful helper who can light her way on the path back home. That is because older eyes are beacons of understanding. Wrinkles are a road map of someone’s experience. It is a beautiful ‘ah’ moment when we encounter someone who can help us navigate a crisis. Showered with answers, we feel immense comfort and relief. Dorothy landed in the strange land of Oz and met a wisdom-bearer. Like an oracle, she was Dorothy’s salvation because she had an answer.

Wisdom is a great boon. Those who have it are fountains of sagacity. Even trickles of their wisdom can help individuals, society, and posterity. When we acknowledge the beauty in wisdom, especially in our youth-focused culture, we recognize beautiful people who are typically excluded from membership in the beauty club.

Elderhood is not the only qualification to be a wisdom-bearer. People of any age who study and practice skills can be wise about their specialties. People of any age who live with disabilities, suffer discrimination, experience hardships or wonders have knowledge that others can learn from. People of any age can have the experience and knowledge that adds up to wisdom.

Let’s be wise and remember to acknowledge beauty that is wrought from wisdom. Our mentors, our friends, our parents, our elders, our children, our teachers, and everyone carrying this beautiful and world-changing quality deserve to be recognized for their beauty.

Somewhat related – Perhaps you have seen this viral video. It shows an 80 year old woman dancing like someone one quarter her age. She does it beautifully, partly because it just is and partly because of her age. Who are the beautiful wisdom bearers you have come across in life and literature?

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Copyright 2014 The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Reimagining Beauty – V is for Voice

If you are new to this blog, welcome!

For my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I am writing about how storytellers, writers, parents, teachers (in other words, just about anyone) can reimagine beauty to be more inclusive. That way, people with disabilities, varying body types and racial backgrounds, etc. (in other words, anyone) can feel and be recognized by the world as the beauties they truly are.

Reimagining Beauty – V is for Voice

At a farmer’s market last summer, I was talking to the seller about the eggplants when a little girl beside me sucked in her breath. Flashing me a “Santa’s Here!” smile, she was shook excitedly as she told me about her day. The thing was, I never saw her before in all my life. Noticing all the flies congregating in my wide open mouth, the girl’s mother told me that her daughter listens to my storytelling CD’s. The little girl recognized the sound of my voice, and through my familiar voice, I was an old friend.

The voice cultivates powerful connections.

Recent research confirms that babies listen, in utero, to their mother’s voice. Other research suggests that newborns prefer their mother’s voice over others. Not only do babies learn language from their mothers, listening to a mother’s voice may help a baby develop a loving bond with her.

Familiar voices are beautiful in their familiarity. Even unfamiliar ones can be aural sources of beauty. Whether spoken or sung, a voice can be comforting, sensual, pretty, and so much more.

The voice isn’t only an instrument of speech. Everyone has a voice in the way they write words or formulate their spoken lexicon. That kind of voice can also be beautiful.

There is also inherent beauty in the way people give voice to their own personalities. Whether it is physical, political, the way we decorate our homes, or the causes we stand up for, when we give voice to ourselves, it can be beautiful.

Be a voice for broadening the way we portray beauty. Depict characters in stories with beautiful voices in the many ways that voices can be beautiful. Allow your characters to fall in love at first sound. Write about them, tell about them, give your audiences an earful of the myriad possibilities in the beauty of the voice.

What voices in your life are beautiful? Can you think of any voices in literature that are beautiful? Have you ever connected to someone because of something in the sound or tone of voice? Are there voices that call up memories or inspire feelings of a coming home? I’d love to hear from you.

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Copyright 2014 The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Reimagining Beauty – U is for Uniqueness

If you are new to this blog, welcome!

For my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I am writing about how storytellers, writers, parents, teachers (in other words, just about anyone) can reimagine beauty to be more inclusive. That way, people with disabilities, varying body types and racial backgrounds, etc. (in other words, anyone) can feel and be recognized by the world as the beauties they truly are.

Reimagining Beauty – U is for Uniqueness

Those who have been following my blog know that the Reimagining Beauty series was inspired by a little girl. She was born with a rare, genetic syndrome that has given her many medical challenges. In addition to needing a wheelchair, her appearance is unique because her body is asymmetrical.

But that doesn’t matter one whit. When that child smiles, when she gazes at something with interest, one doesn’t see how she is different. One simply sees a beautiful little girl.

It’s not just my opinion. Thanks to social media, I regularly see how people react to photos or videos of her. Everyone is floored by the child’s beauty, and they say so.

To some it might seem a sweet conundrum – what makes her look different adds to her great beauty. But truly, her uniqueness doesn’t rob her of beauty, her uniqueness bestows it. The sweetness deep inside that child connects, accentuates, and beautifies all of her features, sculpting a sweet and lovely darling.

Why can’t beauty be viewed in terms of the uniqueness of people? Instead trying to make people all look alike, let’s value beautiful individuality.

People say that they want this. The web buzzes about how we can and should shed culturally defined, marginalizing, unattainable beauty standards. Any of us can step up to the plate and reimagine beauty in all the ways I’ve described in this series and in all the other ways that beauty manifests itself.

Put the force of your words behind your wants. Write about the beauty of uniqueness. Tell stories about people who are different and beautiful. Retrain your mind to appreciate the gorgeousness of diversity. We can do this with the power of language: for that little girl, for each other, and for everyone.

We can change the way the world defines beauty, one word at a time.

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Copyright 2014 The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.

Reimagining Beauty – T is for Talent

If you are new to this blog, welcome!

For my Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I am writing about how storytellers, writers, parents, teachers (in other words, just about anyone) can reimagine beauty to be more inclusive. That way, people with disabilities, varying body types and racial backgrounds, etc. (in other words, anyone) can feel and be recognized by the world as the beauties they truly are.

Reimagining Beauty – T is for Talent

It seems like everywhere you look, all around the world, there is another “Got Talent” show. But it’s not just television that fancies the franchise. Competitions crop up in countywide events and local fairs. People everywhere like to display their talents and receive accolades. An unlikely marriage of hype and truth.

The hype is obvious. But the truth?

The people who compete on these shows don’t all wear size 4, they’re not all ripped. Their beauty lies elsewhere.

When you hear a singer who is blessed with a vocal gift, you know it; whether you mean to or not, your mouth can drop open in awe. When you watch someone’s hand fluidly and brilliantly replicate, on paper, tablet or canvas, the scene in which you are sitting, you can understand why the phrase “be still my heart” is spoken. The profound beauty of talent can still a room and suspend time.

Although it is nice to receive accolades, we don’t have to win competitions and the compliments of celebrity judges for these gifts to be beautiful. They just are.

Talents come in a variety of flavors. One young man I know can look at a computer and bend it to his will. A photographer friend can take a picture of a fence and sell it as art. I’ve watched a college student leap so high and fluidly that he makes ballet seem an easy breezy, DIY dance form. Mechanics who can make engines hum, those who listen and intuitively understand, math whizzes who hear music in numbers – all have beautiful gifts.

Why can’t a princess seek a prince who can write a fantastic story or who can teach physics? Why can’t boy meets boy stories focus on the beauty of their abilities?

Beauty has many aspects. Talent is just one of them. Not everybody has the same talent, but everybody can be beautiful for the talents that they have. By writing and speaking about the beauty of talent, we can encourage people to notice the beautiful talents in themselves and others.

What talents do you see in life and literature that are beautiful? What talents have you been exposed to on the web that took your breath away, making you feel like you were witnessing great beauty? I’d love to hear your comments.

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Copyright 2014. The Storycrafters. All rights reserved.