Let's be a Sign, a Wonder

Do men feel comfortable with being called “beautiful”?  I have this idea that most men would see this sign and presume it doesn’t apply to them.  I’m assuming beauty is associated with the feminine in much of Western cultures.  Am I way off?

But then I keep thinking of the Italians and how often they use the word to describe just about everything.  Hysterically so, sometimes.  If you speak even a minute amount of Italian, you’ll likely find it laughable how often you’ll hear bellissimas and bellissimos dropped like little joyful linguistic bombs.  I’d like to think their overuse of the word is something of a hyperbolic help, particularly for those of us whose cultures don’t linger over beauty all that much.

I want to believe that the appreciation of beauty is in my blood, somehow.  I imagine it being transfused to me from all of my Sicilian and Neapolitan grandparents, dripping down from the stories I never heard from them.

People often ask me why it is I feel “called” to Italy, why I want to settle my life there.  I never have a very clear answer.  All I can point to are these inner-artifacts.  Something of the Italian longing for beauty got into my emotions when I lived there.  That cultural prerogative acted as a pick axe at my heart, uprooting something I hadn’t previously known was there.  This is, in part, why when I hear Italian spoken I feel I am home.

(Photo by Seenya Rita)