the most beautiful woman in the world

I recently saw Angelina Jolie. Not on a movie screen or on the cover of a magazine, but up close and personal. Close enough to see the baby bump for myself. Some days she might be The Most Beautiful Woman In The World, one half of the best looking couple in the world, but on that day she was just a mother picking up her kids from school. Well, a mother picking up her kids from school with a driver, bodyguard, and security team in tow...subjecting herself to the stares and whispers of other parents and teachers...at 3:00 in the afternoon when the fewest people were likely to see her. And it got me thinking... No doubt super stardom has its perks, but as a parent it has some real drawbacks. I know how much I worry about my son when I drop him off at day care every day. But what if, in addition to worrying about skinned knees, hurt feelings from the comments of his fellow preschoolers (that's a whole other topic!), or not liking the school lunch, I also had to worry about him being hunted down by the papparazzi or snatched by some fame and money hungry lunatic?? How stressful would it be to know that everyone he came in contact with would be passing judgment on everything from his haircut to his clothes to his manners? And how much would it suck if you had to deal with a million cameras following you around every time you wanted to just take your kids to the park or out for ice cream? I'll never know what any of that is like, but I have to think it would get old fast. So today I will choose to be grateful that I will never be The Most Beautiful Woman In The World.