Few of us, I suspect, are particularly enamoured by the prospect of growing old. Those lines of age, the layers of saggy skin, the increasingly futile battle to maintain one’s youthful looks. At least, we say, it beats the alternative, which of course means death. Looking old is the price we pay for growing old and there’s previous little we can do about it.
I have never much cared for mirrors and, unlike the character in Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain, have never had one eye in the mirror as I watched myself gavotte, not least because I can’t dance, but also because I never liked what I saw in the reflection, even less so as my inevitable physical decline remorselessly continues. But I have no wish to do anything about it and in this modern world where appearances seem to mean everything, I wonder if this makes me unique.
Although I have no wish to undergo surgical procedures of any kind to enhance my fading looks, I do understand why others do, especially women. The pressure on women to look a certain way, with ultra smooth skin and giant duck type lips, must be enormous. All across the media, the images we see feature impossibly beautiful women and men who may or may not have gone through various procedures in order to achieve what they see as some form of perfection. That I don’t see it that way is irrelevant. Beauty is, as always, in the eyes of the beholder.
I know I have to be careful when writing this stuff because I could easily come across as being sneery and patronising but I’ll say it anyway: I like the lines of age. I am not bothered by grey hair, so-called imperfect blemishes, I do not think that every person should look like a top model. When I say imperfect, I feel I need to add a qualification. Everyone and no one is perfect. Perfection and imperfections are opinions and not always welcome opinions. I am sorry I am labouring the point but honestly, just be who you want to be and look how you want to look.
The same thing applies to those who like to indulge in lip fillers and all the rest of it. It is absolutely none of my business and if it makes you feel good, then do it. All I am saying is, in my opinion, you just don’t need to.
This is so much easier for me to say because nature has already taken a considerable toll and I have long accepted there is nothing much I can do about it beyond trying to be healthier and more energetic. All the lip fillers and facelifts won’t extend my life, that’s for sure, but for some folk the descent into old age will feel less unbearable.
The pressures on us to look ‘a certain way’ are immense and I get that. From a personal point of view, I just feel that’s just the way we’ve ended up looking as a result of the evolutionary process. Not everyone can look like a top Hollywood superstar or an international model on the catwalk and perhaps we shouldn’t want to, either. Human beauty is everywhere and while some artificial filler being injected into one’s system may work for some folk, in my own little world, it makes no difference at all.
