One day as I was driving Dad to his radiation,  I mentioned something about taking a selfie.  He gave me a look and grumbled, I inquired about the grumble.

“I don’t want pictures like that of you on the internet,” he barked.

It was indeed an awkward moment  when I had to explain to him what a selfie wasn’t.

For the three of you who have not yet indulged in the fun of a selfie, it is only a picture of you taken by you, generally with a phone or other mobile device.  I have quite a few selfies on file, such as this gem inspired by an actual news story:

For the record, I love selfies.  Some say they are the ultimate reflection of our narcissism, and that is true of some.  But that’s just a small percentage made up of politicians, celebrities and other borderline personalities.  By and large, I view selfies as the opposite of narcissism and that’s what I love about them.

How many really pretty selfies have you seen?  Mostly the angles are skewed, the lighting is wonky, the pose is awkward and some hairs are out of place.  They can be really unattractive, and yet people still post them anyway.  That is beautiful to me, the willingness to be unattractive and the joy of letting go.

We live in a beauty obsessed culture, programmed to aim for beauty in all things.  So, when someone posts an awkward selfie, what I see is what’s inside.  The fearlessness, the joie de vivre, the subversive thumbing of the nose at standards of pretty.  I LOVE THAT!

I consciously made a choice when I started taking selfies not to get bogged down in thinking about being pretty.  My goal is to just have fun and hope those who view it see what’s inside me.

To demonstrate my affection for selfies, I’ll be taking a new one every day in September.  My avatar on Twitter and FB profile picture will be changed daily and I’m definitely not guaranteeing any pretty.

One caveat before I let you kids out of class.  I have a dumb phone.  In order to take a picture of myself with it, I have to turn it so I can’t see the screen.  It makes for some creative angles, so be prepared