Today, I am thankful for my commenters. I am often thankful for you, but I feel it intensely now. Rosh Hashanah is next week, and I am already wavering. I’m brewing a post on reckonings, and coping strategies, and small moments of grace and readying myself for more buckets of tears. But one thing that’s going to get me through it is knowing that Nicole, Sister, Belette, Neighbor, and Susan and my other readers (even if you don’t comment) are rooting for me. When I feel low and small and lonely, I’m going to think of you and know that you wish me well, and that will make all the difference.
This is one of the prettiest pictures I’ve seen in a long time.
I mean, how lovely, right? And she almost looks like someone who isn’t a movie star, someone who you might see at a party, or in the grocery store, on a very, very, very good day for her.
I am taken with this photo because, like Martha Plimpton, I have a face that looks about as broad as it is long. In good photos of me, my cheeks and nose and chin appear round and knobby (in a good way!) just like hers do here. My hair looks better short and sporty than long and Hollywood-y. And we’re both close to turning 41 (I’m closer).
Martha Plimpton looks like an almost-41-year-old on the best day ever — but it’s the kind of best day that I can imagine having. I can never imagine looking like most celebrities. But if, for six months, or a year, you had enough sleep, fantastic healthy food, amazing and fulfilling physical activity; if you were happy in love, and had just done something amazing in your public life; if someone else was handling all the details of life for you at the moment, and you found the best dress ever and it was on sale, and your dearest friend had just told you the best joke ever, and your partner was waiting for you with stars in his (or her) eyes… if all that happened, don’t you think you could look like your version of this (adjusting for size, frame, coloring, style — maybe you look like Elisabeth Moss or Alfre Woodard or Camryn Manheim — I’m going for a mood and a feeling of almost attainability)? I like to think that.
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I love your prose here–you really capture what it feels like to feel really good and look really good, and I entirely agree about MP. I saw her on the street a couple times in Manhattan–she always looked freshly-scrubbed, this sort of energetic glow, which is something I attribute to you as well, though I never thought of the two of you looking alike before. And she always had some fabulous accessory; I seem to remember her having summer scarves, at a time when other people didn’t, and they totally worked. This I also associate with you. You have a much nicer nose than MP.
Isn’t this dress wonderful–is the designer listed anywhere?
I’ve been delighted lately to be compared to Anne Hathaway–the dorky version of her in that new movie does look a little like me when I’m not so bleached.
You have a sad anniversary on your horizon, I know, and I’m thinking of you and saying some prayers. Strength and inner peace I wish for you as you begin the holidays.
I love you as Anne Hathaway. And your mouth is better proportioned. She can look a bit ducky at times, no? I am wishing that peace will be happening with me as well. I’ve already hit some big emotional potholes, one eventually uplifting and one just crummy and life-sucking, so, per my response to Nicole, I think I’m just going to be tired. As we used to say, ice-skating, not ice-fishing.
love this post. i love how well you describe Ms Plimpton in that photo. She is quite beautiful and perfect. And you are right, I think we should strive for our own versions of this…I think it is attainable.
Best of luck in the coming days/week. you will be in my thoughts.
(and thank you for your the kind shout out. it warmed my heart and made me smile.)
Thanks, dear. My hope is that I’ll be so exhausted by the holidays (and I’m definitely on track) that I’ll just float through in a haze and sleep a lot. There are worse ways to spend difficult holidays, right?
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