And Still I Rise

On a couple of occasions I've run into this woman. She's just a regular woman save for the fact that she obviously has one breast. It's not that I don't know women with mastectomies but never have I seen a woman in public minus a prosthesis. No doubt she has seen the stares(mine included) of curious persons unaccustomed to a woman boldly telling the world she has one breast.

Since then, I've been thinking about her and the mindset that allows her to go about her business unfazed. In my mind that speaks of courage and a woman comfortable enough in her skin to not be defined by breasts or the absence thereof. It could not have been an easy thing given the obsession with breasts-big breasts as a sexual object. That makes me offer up so much applause for a woman who has battled a terrible disease and knows the essence of a woman is not her physical appearance but something much deeper. Something called confidence that says this is who I am world. Something I wish had a lot more of.