Tales from the Beauty Brigade

Tales from the Beauty Brigade

Synopsis:  Tied to COTS, Councilwoman Couture’s sister Cinder Couture, weighs in on her part to bring beauty and enlightenment to her community. 

~*~Our Beauty Brigadiers ~*~

Cinderella Couture

Emily Chavez  

Francesca ‘Fran’ Carelli 

        ‘Beauty is truth, and truth beauty.  That is all ye know or need to know.’—Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn 

        ‘Each of us in this life contributes our own verse.  What will your verse be?”, --John Keating, ‘Dead Poets Society’  

Chapter 1—Inspired to Start my Own Brigade

          Watching Ashlynn my sisters from the shadows (or more importantly at the table, savoring high tea and a raspberry Jammy Dodger), I was stricken by just how much happiness the Council of Truth Seekers had given her.  It was something she had been tumbling about in her innovative, incredible imagination.   She didn’t know at all where to begin.  Ideally, she felt that recruiting other like-minded individuals would help her lofty, altruistic, laudable idea take off.   

          To be honest, I had never really been concerned too much with hot-button issues of society.  I always thought, ‘I’m just a kid.  What can I possibly do?  Society sees me as someone who doesn’t truly understand the world and all of its woes.’   Society may be accurate about the fact I don’t understand many things, but so many of us are unaware of our lack of information.   We claim more and more wisdom but there are still questions that remain.  It’s the way of the world.  

          Although I had always contributed something to the COTS meetings, I always felt sort of ‘left out’.  I wondered if so called ‘kids’ like me could ever truly make a difference in the world around me.   Then, I bumped into some girlfriends at school who were asking the same questions I was.   All these profound questions seemed to culminate in a more-than obvious answer.   There is power in numbers, of that much I am well aware.  

Chapter 2—Good Things Take Time

          Ash always taught me the importance of patience.   It’s not always easy to cultivate, but given enough time, it grows and flourishes.   I didn’t understand this until I began to near double digits and became older.   My Brigade sprouted up overnight by meeting two other girls from my grade school during recess and community conversations began.

          It all started innocently enough.  Emily and Fran always kvetched about the dilapidated playground that we played in.   We gathered together pulling moneys from lemonade stands, bake sales, crochet projects and odd jobs around the neighborhood.  Not only did we beautify our playground but we made indigent people have access to the public pool, gym and created even more glorious parks than before.  

          Seeing Ash work from a distance always made me want to do immense things of import and there were days that I felt insignificant.   Right before going to sleep, Ash would always remind me of a proverb that Antoine our butler, mom and dad had told us.  

          ‘A thousand forests are created at the planting of one acorn.   Don’t let others dissuade you just because you’re small or young.   Let your vitality carry you.’, she’d often say before tucking me into bed.   The discouragement I had vanished and I was able to face anything the next day, no matter how dismal everything else seemed around me at school.   I knew I could always go to my lovely friends Emily and Fran and I could fall into the loving sanctuary of my big sister’s arms, mom or dad’s embrace, or the supportive compliments of the members of the Council.  

Chapter 3—Having Time to Rest

          The Brigade can be extremely tiresome at times but we’re helping kids like ourselves out who may not have a voice or are too scared to ask someone for a hand.  It may be seen as an attack on someone’s credibility, integrity or identity just to start asking for someone’s assistance.   However, when these individuals know it’s not only ok to ask but know that it’s acceptable to receive help when necessary.    Once these individuals are back up on their feet, we begin to assist new customers.  

          However, there comes a time where one must set aside days if not weeks to rest from giving of oneself and just take a little moment for me.   I know it sounds selfish, but truthfully if I didn’t have days or weeks put aside for R&R to work on improving myself, I wouldn’t be able to continue the work the Brigade does.  Emily, Fran and I are all working towards enlightenment and becoming our best version.   We have a whole life time to transform ourselves, but we realize that we’re always renewing, adapting and continuing to learn no matter how old we become.  

          Sometimes, the girls and myself take a mini vacation in our own home town just to update ourselves with aspects of the community we aren’t that familiar with.  Needless to say, we’re always meeting new friends and satiating our curiosity (which continues to grow).   Every day is an adventure no matter how we look at it.  

Chapter 4—Growing Up, Yet Maintaining Childlikeness

          Another birthday landmark recently happened.  I’m no longer a little girl but a teenager.   It’s a bit frightening and exciting all at the same time.  I still maintain my childlike curiosity and jubilance no matter what obstacles will come my way.

          I’ve watched my friends mature as well.   Our hobbies, likes and dislikes have changed.   We still relish the high teas that Ash holds each and every day (even if they are a bit frilly for my ninja tastes sometimes) and the Brigade still holds true.   Sometimes our work becomes slightly burdensome with all the homework our teachers assign but somehow, someway, the three of us are able to turn ramshackle surroundings into something useful and lovely.   Beauty can be found anywhere, in anything.   All one has to do is uncover the dirt and let the inner worth burst forth in light.   

          There are moments maturing can be painful.  I kvell each and every time mom and dad measure me, because it seems I shoot up an inch every night.  If I keep sprouting like a weed, I know I’m going to dwarf my sister in height.  I don’t know if I am ready for that, because I realize others consider height to be a governing factor of leadership.   History got it wrong about Napoleon, because he wasn’t exactly vertically challenged.  I don’t know why we still use ‘Napoleonic complex’ as an adjective any longer, honestly.   One thing I know for absolute certain is, no matter how tall I become, my sister will still be eldest and the authority in the home.   Yet, thanks to her, I have learned the principals of exemplary leadership.   For as long as I live, I will exist by these tenets and teach them to my children, should I ever be blessed by them.

Chapter 5—Guiding Hands

          As I grew older and wiser, we still found methods of assisting others who had no voice or who were too afraid to raise their voice for their own cause.   I had met a young woman when I was in college who had barely enough clothes to wear when she had come to the University.   Emily, Fran and myself had all helped this young woman, especially when it came to issues with studying.   She had never been very good at taking her academics very seriously but was blindingly intelligent.   She wanted to go into chemistry to help find a cure for many of life’s dread diseases and learn more about biogenetics and other advanced sciences.   With patience and plenty of humor (as well as healthy snacks and much needed video game breaks for catharsis), we got Missy into her field of choice and sent her off and running.  Come to think of it, I wonder how Missy is and wonder what ever happened to her.  As soon as she was accepted to Yale, we haven’t really seen hide nor hair of her.   She still keeps in touch though email, Skype and What’sApp.

          At long last, Emily, Fran and I all graduated from college.  We were blown-away with how quickly everything seemed to pass us by.   All of us were in different fields, but I had taken my sister’s lead of becoming a councilor.   I didn’t know what I would be doing at first but so long as the Brigade was functional, nothing else really mattered.  

Chapter 6—Leaving Home

          Although I was always going to be welcome at the Couture estate, I wanted a place of my own.   I didn’t really like flaunting the fact I had plenty of capital to use for my own abode, and I made no qualms about being rich.   I was just a normal, everyday girl who happened to be into ninjas, samurai, Japanese culture and J-pop.  I suppose you could say I was a bit of an otaku but no one seemed to mind my obsession. 

          Ashlynn would always have the estate even when she became older.  If she ever had children, it would go to them, but if not, the estate would be used as a place of learning, growth, enlightenment and of course, a continual place for lost souls to be found.    It had been since the first COTS meeting and that wasn’t about to change. 

          From time to time I like to return and visit with mom, dad, Ash and our beloved butler Antoine.  It’s almost like ‘Toine hasn’t aged a day since we were infants.  

          ‘How go matters with the Beauty Brigade ?’, my lovely sister queried over a cup of Earl Grey and a raspberry Jammy Dodger.  

          ‘Still sensational.  All is well.   Hard to believe how many things are changing, and yet, time here with you never does.’, I said.   We had a rollicking laugh about that one.   We watched a movie we enjoyed when we were younger, reliving days of nostalgia.   It was with tears in my eyes that I said my farewells to Ash, but she kissed my eyelids.

          ‘We’ll see each other again soon, darling.  Keep up the good work with the Brigade !  I’m so proud of you, and so are mom and dad.’, she said, finally giving me two kisses each cheek and a large embrace farewell.

Epilogue

          Lounging about in the pool with Fran and Emily, surrounded by friends I sometimes wonder why it is we that are the fortunate ones.   I know though that such abundance overflows and it is only natural to want to give to others.   Through this, we teach the ‘secret’ of abundance.   After all, it is energy, just as big Sis always taught me.    I don’t consider myself totally enlightened to understand the impact of such esoteric eschatological Truth, but I can always reinvent, renew and recreate.  That is what life truly is; Rebirth.   Until I am translated to my exalted form, that’s what I always aspire to.   Yet, I will always admit I am but a mere human and I only wish to leave a situation better than what it was when I found it.   So far, the ladies and I have done so to 100 times greater than our original imaginations could fathom. 

That is the power of agape, my dears.   Never underestimate it. 

          ~*~From the Councilwoman of the Beauty Brigade

          Cinderella ‘Cindy’ Couture