A good friend of mine has been lending me quite a bit of Romance lately. She thinks that the load of non-fiction I read is ridiculous and her attempts to distract me have proven to be rather successful. And to be honest, I am oh so very entertained by it all.

Now there's always the stereotypes and cliches of Romance, but the other night I read something so straightforward and so direct that I was quite taken back by the phrase.

“Your wrapping paper may not be as fancy as some others” she husked. “but the gift you keep inside is everything that I could ever want. I don't care how it is wrapped.”
Tina Price

Okay, I admit, pretty cheesey line. However often one can see people expecting relationships to pop up amongst the beautiful, the loving, the passionate and often they miss out on something they too could have had due to insecurities about outward appearances. I'm astounded by our society's focus on physical beauty and how it affects each and every one of us in our decisions from what we wear in the morning to the very people we choose to court, or even how we treat those we meet on the street. You may say that it isn't true, and that you are not affected by this and that it shouldn't be. However, evolutionary and social psychology is stating the blatantly obvious that it is so. I had a professor that would constantly repeat the same phrase to me whenever this very subject was brought up, "Shelley the more beautiful you are, the easier life is for you, it's just that simple." Several of the studies I've read in Evoultionary Psychology have stated that you mentally size up and evaluate every person you meet within a minute. There are variations to this time limit, like if you move and it takes longer for someone to look over you, the list goes on. From this conclusion it is theorized that one should know if they are compatible to those they are looking over within this time period.

Although I'm aware of human nature through study and being human myself, I still appreciate that simple phrase I read the other night. The simple truth that despite physical appearance of the reciever, this woman loves him for everything he is, everything he strives to do, and the very content of his mind and personality. That being with him is a gift and that is all she truly wants..



Oh, perhaps I am too much of a Romantic idealist; but as Pepi Le Pew used to say "Lesigh."