The Sublime Tree

When I think of a Pear Tree the first thing that enters my mind is the passage from the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. "The First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a Pear Tree." I see a partridge sitting on the top of a Pear Tree as if it were its crowning glory. Some believe that the Pear Tree is connected to teachings in Christianity as well as other religions. Many believe this tree represents comfort and peace. The pear is symbolized through art in the shape and forms in which artists represent women and beauty. This is most evident in the Baroque and Renaissance periods.

During the Baroque and Renaissance periods it was considered to be a status symbol of beauty and wealth if women possessed a rounded or pear like shape. We that are familiar with this lovely delicate fruit are conscious of its narrower top and wider bottom. Women of the period were often painted with small breasts, a rounded stomach, and a rather bulbous buttock. This idea of beauty has become a completely obsolete perception in our modern times. Women with a fuller form or a pear shaped body are considered obese and are looked down upon by our modern society. Societal views of beauty have become so distorted that it has driven women into unrealistic expectations regarding their body. This has tormented many young females into restrictive behaviors to prevent weight increase or thrown them into cycles of eating and purging.

I honestly have no idea how our society got into such a fixation on skinny. Skinny is modeled in fashion magazines, on television, and in movies. Film doesn't hide everything. You can often count the ribs down performers backs because there is so little flesh covering them. There are truly so many forms of beauty that go unrecognized just because the outer covering is not on the same line as the current trend.

It would have been such a misfortune if we had overlooked the delicious pear with its lovely scent and juicy interior just because it did not conform to the shape of another more popular fruit such as the apple. We would have really missed out on a good thing! It is such a mistake to categorize people and especially women by the shape of their bodies. We need to focus more on what is on the inside and less on what is on the outside. The inside is where the lusciousness lies. It is contained within the personality of an individual, the kindness they possess, their intelligence and life experiences. Our society needs to cultivate the Pear of humanity in the same way it has perfected the delightful Pear fruit over the centuries. Rejecting people over their size robs them of their self confidence, preventing those rejecting them the opportunity to grow and learn from understanding another person's uniqueness.

As an art form I personally tend to love the more curved and flowing lines over the more simple linear designs. I was a young girl whom was always considered by standards overweight. I suffered the stigma of what WAS and WAS NOT considered beautiful. I remember being taunted with "fatty, fatty, two by four - can't get through the bathroom door - so she did it on the floor." Many decades later and that bullying taunt still resounds strong and loudly in my mind. It was the boys that chimed this at me. I learned to be fearful and shy of them. Now, I am certainly Not slamming the male sex because I think our world would be sadly lacking without them ,but I would like to point out that they are very visual creatures and miss out on a lot of beautiful people because of this flaw. There are a lot of girls out there who are charming and deserving but miss out on male companionship because of many men's inability to get past their visual acuity.

For myself, and the women like me, we are the Pear Tree. We carry the beauty of the green and golden fruit. Linger close and you will smell our delicate scent wafting through the air. Come and sit under our flowering shade and observe the individuality of our every petal. Look through our branches with budding leaves and find tranquility in our existence, in us enjoy the singularity of your own being.