Isolation and Bathing Suits

I’ve written before about feeling a bit isolated. And though I never wrote about the horrors of buying (and the horrifying idea of publicly displaying) bathing suits, I have been talking about it a lot lately.

But today, I confirmed something I suppose I already knew full well. (I actually have never said full well out loud – and it even looks funny written down. What does that mean anyway? Is full well more well than just plain well?) I met two friends along with our seven kids at the pool for dinner. One friend I’ve known for many years (I’ll call her Matilda), the other (who I’ll call Mandy) for just a few. They are both level-headed, bright, and interesting women. And both expressed that they felt isolated and had few friends. (I would have said that both had many, many friends if you’d asked me before this…) and both commented on my new bathing suit – which I admit has a little skirt. As if that little skirt covers up the flaws. But I digress.

Now Matilda (not her real name) is tall and thin. Beautiful woman. She feels uncomfortable in a bathing suit. Mandy (right, also not her real name) is also quite pretty – more curvy – and she, too is uncomfortable in a bathing suit. Now I ask you, when is the last time a woman told you she feels beautiful in a swim suit? And why is that? Well, that’s two questions. Why don’t we feel good about who we are and how we look is one question. The other is why, if we feel so awful, do we put those darn things on and go to the pool? And then eat ice cream with the kids during adult swim?

Oh, the unanswerables. But my point here, if there was one, is that I am not alone. Well, perhaps I am, but everyone else is too.