The Greener Grass
We are so blessed to live in a costal city and be a 15 minute drive from the beach. It really is awesome to be able to put your feet in the sand and watch the kids run in and out of the surf without much effort involved. When we lived in PA the beach was a few hours drive away so it was at minimum an entire day activity and most often reserved for weekend trips or vacations. Having the beach so easily accessible is definitely one of the bigger perks of living in our current location.
I get a great deal of laughter every summer over the very stark contrast between American beaches and Asian beaches. Walking out on the beach, you quickly realize the landscape is very different. As you walk out onto an American beach, you notice beach umbrellas dotting the horizon, and about one million towels and blankets stretched out to accommodate the many eager sun bathers. Most everyone enjoying their day in the sun is dressed in as little clothing as they deem appropriately possible. Our white skin is eagerly soaking up the sun rays in the hopes that we will return home a little darker than we came. Because after all, if you don’t have a tan by summer’s end, you can’t have had very much fun right? Walking onto a Chinese beach the divergence of ideology is immediately apparent. Instead of a horizon dotted with umbrellas and towels, you approach a veritable sea of tents. These beach tents line the coast as far as the sand stretches in either direction. These curious tent dwellers are clothed in quite the opposite fashion. As much clothing as can be tolerated in the heat is covering the various aged and gendered vacationers. Large hats and personal sun umbrellas are necessary accessories for walks along the beach side. This summer I also started seeing facekini’s, take a look at the article HERE Of course in both countries there are exceptions to the rule, but in general the approach to this fun in the sun is quite different in appearance.
One might think that the disparity in appearance comes from a sincere concern for healthy living. And if this were the case it would be quite commendable. However, the real reason is sadly just another version of the age old greener grass theory. One culture (the one with a largely white skinned population) esteems tan skin as much more beautiful than pale white skin. The other culture (the one made up of primarily tanner skinned people) obsessively values white skin as supremely beautiful. I was talking this week to a Chinese friend and her take on it was, “we just always want what we don’t have”.
That rings so true to me. It seems no matter what I have, there is always more that I want. We no sooner acquire something that we have long desired than we turn our focus to the next thing. I often barely pause long enough to give thanks for what I’ve been given because I’m already so focused on what I don’t have. I am often amazed at the simplicity of this truth illustrated in the lives of my children and my friends. It is a universal illness. The only cure for our unending lust is the fountain of living water: Isaiah 55, “Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me, hear, that your soul might live.” Psalm 107:9, “For HE satisfies the longing soul”
I get a great deal of laughter every summer over the very stark contrast between American beaches and Asian beaches. Walking out on the beach, you quickly realize the landscape is very different. As you walk out onto an American beach, you notice beach umbrellas dotting the horizon, and about one million towels and blankets stretched out to accommodate the many eager sun bathers. Most everyone enjoying their day in the sun is dressed in as little clothing as they deem appropriately possible. Our white skin is eagerly soaking up the sun rays in the hopes that we will return home a little darker than we came. Because after all, if you don’t have a tan by summer’s end, you can’t have had very much fun right? Walking onto a Chinese beach the divergence of ideology is immediately apparent. Instead of a horizon dotted with umbrellas and towels, you approach a veritable sea of tents. These beach tents line the coast as far as the sand stretches in either direction. These curious tent dwellers are clothed in quite the opposite fashion. As much clothing as can be tolerated in the heat is covering the various aged and gendered vacationers. Large hats and personal sun umbrellas are necessary accessories for walks along the beach side. This summer I also started seeing facekini’s, take a look at the article HERE Of course in both countries there are exceptions to the rule, but in general the approach to this fun in the sun is quite different in appearance.
One might think that the disparity in appearance comes from a sincere concern for healthy living. And if this were the case it would be quite commendable. However, the real reason is sadly just another version of the age old greener grass theory. One culture (the one with a largely white skinned population) esteems tan skin as much more beautiful than pale white skin. The other culture (the one made up of primarily tanner skinned people) obsessively values white skin as supremely beautiful. I was talking this week to a Chinese friend and her take on it was, “we just always want what we don’t have”.
That rings so true to me. It seems no matter what I have, there is always more that I want. We no sooner acquire something that we have long desired than we turn our focus to the next thing. I often barely pause long enough to give thanks for what I’ve been given because I’m already so focused on what I don’t have. I am often amazed at the simplicity of this truth illustrated in the lives of my children and my friends. It is a universal illness. The only cure for our unending lust is the fountain of living water: Isaiah 55, “Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me, hear, that your soul might live.” Psalm 107:9, “For HE satisfies the longing soul”
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