Would you trade places with the two women in the above photograph?
Open any women’s magazine and you’ll find young women that resemble the models in the above photo. They are young and pretty, but after the finest makeup is applied, and they’re photographed at the right angle, the photos make them appear to be flawless.
No matter what race or color, women pick up magazines to read the articles but are drawn to the perfect-looking model on the cover.
We gaze at the exquisite photos inside the magazines where models are flaunting gorgeous clothing or jewelry that advertisers are trying to sell.
Do you ever fantasize about trading places with these people so you can have the success they portray in these advertisements?
I don’t think most of us consciously want to trade places with these women. But I am sure we might believe they have a wonderful life or that we could have one if we possessed what they had.
We buy into the illusion of these women’s beauty and success.
We can’t imagine these women ever getting depressed or worrying about their husbands or boyfriends being unfaithful to them.
We can’t imagine them being dateless on a Saturday or any other night.
Nor do they worry about their children getting to the doctor or school on time.
We probably believe these women won’t ever worry about their children’s safety in an often unpredictable and unsafe world.
Their lives must be perfect or at least better than ours. Right?
Wrong!
I am going to let you on a little secret about both these women. The lady in the pink bathing suit has a rap sheet a foot long.
She had just gotten out of prison two years ago for busting a man over his head with a crowbar and stealing his wallet.
She’s usually not a violent person but had to support her cocaine habit. Her wealthy father cut her off financially.
The woman in the stripe bathing suit happened to be a friend and begged her modeling agent to give her wayward friend a job. That’s why you see her in the photo lying next to her.
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The woman in the stripe bathing suit’s secret is that she has zero dollars in the bank because she’s a compulsive gambler. She ran away from an abusive home and didn’t finish high school.
Even though she grew up poor and is doing well as a model, she has a bad spending habit. Her stomach was also growling during this shoot. She’s been starving herself for three weeks just to fit in that bathing suit.
What if I told you I made these stories up to make a point? I don’t know anything about the two models in the photos. My point is that you can’t judge a book by its cover and should never wish to live someone else’s life.
I don’t know if any of you’ve experienced this, but I’ve been guilty of idolizing other people’s lives, wishing I were them.
In my case, I used to get all flushed and my heart soared anytime I would see a lovely, elderly couple holding hands or showing affection. Observing these couples was the cutest thing ever.
I would jump for joy when I heard that a couple was celebrating a high-numbered milestone wedding anniversary.
My reactions to these couples were over the top because I yearned for the type of relationship that I thought they had.
I wanted a husband to stand by my side. I wanted him to hold my hand on my deathbed before I took my last breath.
I assumed these couples had that undying love and they spent endless hours making each other happy. I truly believed this until my mother burst my bubble.
My mother revealed that she had a friend who was brutalized mentally, physically, and emotionally by her husband. They had been married for fifty years.
On the outside, they looked like the perfect couple, but in reality, they were far from it.
This was a wake-up call and as I’ve grown older I realized that everyone has problems and no one should be idolized.
Although I no longer blindly admire older married couples, I still think about changing places with a couple of people in my life. These thoughts don’t stay with me long, but they are still there.
I was feeling a little down one time and thought that if I was living my sisters’ lives, I would never get depressed.
I was talking to one of my sisters and she mentioned that she was crying because she felt down about something. I was surprised.
I said, “You cry?” She looked at me and said, “Why are you surprised?”
I don’t think she’s a robot, but she always seemed so strong and in charge of everything.
Recently, I was going through a bout of depression and I thought about my two sisters and what would it have been like to trade places with them.
I stopped myself because I didn’t know what they were going through, but I knew I had to deal with my own reality.
