I Hear Pretty People

Here's what I'm thinking about this evening...

With my new position at work, I am on the phone much of my day. I speak to nearly every patient that will be coming through our surgical center. One day I realized something interesting. When I am speaking to a patient, I usually develop kind of a picture in my head of what I think they look like. That's probably not too unusual. I expect most people do that. The thing that caught me by surprise was when I realized I nearly always envision each of them as being quite attractive. Is that weird?

I've been pondering this oddity. I know, everyone is beautiful. However, I picture people to look more like actors or models, not like the average person. You know what I mean, right? We really do have lots of patients who come through who are physically beautiful, but maybe not quite as perfect as I picture them on the phone.

One day, I was wondering why all my phone people seem so pretty to me.  I may be speaking to someone who hasn't showered in days, who has food stuck in his or her teeth or for some other reason would normally seem unappealing to me. Yet, as he/she speaks to me, my mind makes them all shiny and maybe even smelling sweet. Does that mean I am a person who has trouble accepting people as they are? I hope not. I'm going to put a different spin on it, because it is my blog and I can do as I wish and make myself seem as shiny and pretty as I wish as well. Because of that, I am going to guess that this phenomenon means I'm an optimist. Who knows what it really means...but I like  it.

Now, I'm wondering about the visually impaired. Do we all seem more beautiful to them? I hope so. It wouldn't make up for them missing out on beautiful sunsets or intricate flowers, but it would seem like a bit of compensation for what they miss.

And last, I am wondering if the same works in reverse. Do patients develop a mental image of how they think I look? I hope they picture me like Jennifer Garner!

Never mind. It doesn't really matter how they envision me. I think from now on, when I'm on the phone, I'm going to picture myself to look like Jennifer Garner.




P.S. to my family, I'm just having fun here. I like looking like me.

(photo from www.people.com)