My friend asked me, “who’s the most beautiful out of your friends?”
I wanted to say, “you cannot rank beauty. Beauty is all around. We are beautiful when we all sit in a circle and laugh until tears stream down our face. We are beautiful when a mother wakes up an hour early so all of her children can go to school with full bellies and a secondary supply to last them through the day. We are beautiful when a lumberjack plants a tree for every one he cuts down, and when someone lends their neighbor rice when they have none to spare. We are beautiful when two best friends roll down a grassy hill, roaring their triumph to the sky, saying ‘we are here we are here we are here.’ We are beautiful when a nurse holds the hand of a dying patient when no one else showed up to do so. You cannot rank beauty. Beauty is in every breath, every glance, every touch, every thought.”
Instead, I said nothing at all.