Angelia Vernon Menchan

Angelia Vernon Menchan is an author, publisher and public speaker who owns two publishing companies, MAMM Productions and Honorable Menchan Media. Mrs. Menchan is also a Budget Officer and former Job Corps Counselor. To date she has published twenty-three books of her own work, both fiction and non-fiction and more than eighty ebook novellas on amazon.com. You can access her bibliography on www.amazon.com search words: Angelia Vernon Menchan




Contact information:
Website: http://acvermen.blogspot.com
Email: acvermen@yahoo.com
Phone numbers: 904 714 2272 904 303 2679

Thursday, June 11, 2009

LOOKS...

One of the best things that writing has done for me is given me a forum for dialogue with people,
When I decided to write, all I wanted to do was tell stories,
Amazingly and blessedly they have been stories that people want to read and characters they can believe and relate to…
Recently I was talking to a woman about Schae’s Story and she touched on how she was able to relate to the Jenelle character, Schae’s sister…but for different reasons,
She confessed to me that she was the very dark-skinned sister to a biracial older sister and how her mother and family had doted on her sister…
How she had spent her life dealing with ugly remarks about her appearance,
I could feel the pain and see it in her eyes, she said it was so painful that she had vowed to have children with a white guy to ensure that her kids didn’t look like her…I was stunned into silence, didn’t know what to say…
But I thought about it,
And thought about it,
And was amazed how deep to the bone those kinds of hurts go,
And how in some cases, people never transcend them,
Not just issues of skin hue,
But issues of looks period,
Unfairly or not, we are judged at least on first impression,
By what we look like…
I remember years ago a friend said to me that looks didn’t matter,
I looked in her lovely face and said,
‘The only people that looks don’t matter to are those who have some, in the same way that money don’t matter until you’re broke…’
Last night as we were driving home from church,
My conversation was on my mind,
So for the umpteenth time, I asked my man,
‘Why are looks so important…’
He said, ‘Baby they just are, they are usually all you have until you get to know someone…after that they don’t matter…as much…’
I know he was right,
But it made me think about all the young girls who navigate through life,
Feeling it is unfair because they don’t look a certain way,
And how it manifests itself in behavior that is a cry for help,
Many girls who don’t feel pretty enough, give themselves away in the hopes,
It will bring what they are looking for…
And of course it doesn’t,
It just leaves them with another set of circumstances to overcome…
That is why as parents we have to teach our children, our daughters, granddaughters, nieces,
How valuable they are and how the world will see them as they see themselves,
Also, make them feel beautiful inside,
Because what comes from within,
Shines without…
Because to be valued,
One must first value oneself…

LORD, DO WE HAVE OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US...

BE BLESSED!

SCHAE’S STORY @ http://www.angeliavmenchan.com/

5 comments:

Jennifer C. said...

We sure do!

I remember when I was in high school I watch everyone go after the cute boy/girl. They went after the jocks, cheerleaders most popular, but I had learned in elementary school the nicest guy is the shy one who no one notices. So I didn't look for Mr. Popular himself. I chose the guy that was a DJ on the weekends and very quiet (maybe he chose me because he was the one to pursue me) and here it is 15 years later and we are still together. But his looks never mattered to me. He's cute and adorable in his own way.

S.D. Denny said...

I was here...and I'm deeply moved!

Angelia Vernon Menchan said...

Jen and S.D,
I ((((heart))) you both,

Blessings!
angelia

Dera Williams said...

Wow, this is timely and so on point. Self-worth is so important. We have to teach our young girls to value themselves and tell them how wonderful and beautiful they are. It is the adults around them that set the tone. Putting ideas in their head that this is beautiful and that is not acceptable is just plain wrong. I have to realize those adults have baggage they are carrying around. Thanks for this column.

Angelia Vernon Menchan said...

Thanks Dera,

angelia