A New Take on an Old Tradition

I’ve been taking Emily out for a long years now around the time of her birthday for some frou-frou time and father/daughter bonding. The tradition is that she usually gets new acrylic nails done professionally. And since she’s a captive audience, I get to talk with her about whatever might be on my mind.

The dynamic is a little different now. Anna and Katie both wanted to give the big lady nails a try and, being wrapped around their finger, I couldn’t say no. They both chose colors that worked well for them and had a lot of fun studying everything the nail professional did.

I think it’s pretty tough to be a “normal” and “well-adjusted” woman in our culture. So I feel the need to act on the idea that beauty is an internal and subjective thing, not an external thing done to satisfy others. So many young women struggle with self-image issues in our culture. So we spent a lot of the time just talking about the whole idea of fake nails, what’s ok about it, and what’s not.

One of these days, they’ll figure out that these traditions are intended to solidify the ideas that 1) they are deeply loved, and 2) that by being loved, we then have much greater capacity to in turn love others. I’m also pretty sure that they fully understand that these little things are also all about having fun and doing your own thing.

This believe on my part is informed by my religious beliefs as a practicing Christian. We should show our love for each other extravagantly, as God did for us through Jesus Christ. But I think that, no matter who you are or what you believe, allowing such a belief (that is, that you are loved and in turn can and should love others) to permeate your life is never a bad thing.

-Kev

P.S. I took Rachel’s older girls, Savannah and Kaylee, out for the same trip on their birthdays. They had a ball too.