Saturday, August 4, 2007

To enhance or not to enhance, that seems to be the question.

I have begun to notice what I consider to be an alarming trend.

I was at a meeting about G’s dyslexia on Friday. (The place where he had his dyslexia classes tests every year for their records and I get to keep a copy) The tester was a nice looking lady somewhere in her 30’s I’d guess, but I was having a hard time paying attention to the very important things she was telling me about,

HEPA requirements…

Confidentiality…

Test results will be back in…

I could not focus on her words because her unusually large breasts were distracting me! They were a very unlikely size for a woman as slender as she was. She had small shoulders, her hands and wrists were small too. Could it be just a super-bra? Not likely. Maybe she was nursing? Probably not as her stomach showed no sighs of recently being stretched three times it's size. She simply was not the type of person that would get her breasts done, in my mind. She was dressed conservatively, she was not wearing a lot of make up, and she did not seem to be putting out the come-hither vibe at all, except for the unusually large breasts.

Then I started thinking…I’ve noticed a lot of women lately that looked like that; large breasts, perfectly clear and taut skin that curved in all the right places. I thought maybe God had started making more women with the American Ideal of the perfect body since I was created. But really, they were everywhere. Normal women you’d see at the coffee shop or at church, and yet, somehow they seamed…enhanced.

This new trend has me a bit worried. Am I going to be the only 70ish year old woman with wrinkles, and parts pudging out in places they shouldn’t, and parts pointing down where they should be pointing out? Will I be the only one in the knitting club with grey hair?

We haven’t gone so far in our society as to not appreciate a face like this, that exudes wisdom and grace. But here’s the thing, getting to that is a process. It involves years of sort-of grey hair, and a few laugh lines (that by the way, are not funny) and crows feet.

Each of these children that I bore have left an indelible mark (or ten) on this body. Nursing them each for around year has also left an equally indelible mark on my once perky breasts. And while I don’t buy off on the old adage that says I have earned each one of the grey hairs that my teens are giving me, I am not willing to spend all my time and my husbands money trying to avoid them.

So people, I beseech, entreat, implore and beg you; stand strong! It is going to be very hard for the few of us who have decided to age naturally, to avoid Dr Nip-Tuck when everyone around us is doing it.

By all means, spend the extra money on the specialty creams and hair products that promise a long wrinkle free life and lustrous locks of gold (or whatever your pre-grey hair color is). But I beg you, embrace your age. Live it. Claim it. Be it.

Because people, I can’t be the only one who actually looks 50 when I’m 50.

3 comments:

Family W said...

This is such a great post and it strikes a real chord with me. I was standing in line at the deli in our local supermarket watching the women that were in line ahead of me. I didn't know if it was because we just moved from the middle of no-where, North Carolina, to a beach town in Florida or if the female society as a whole was shifting into this 'mid-life crisis' mode. I saw FIVE women that day that appeared to have had plastic surgery either on their face or in 'other' places. Not to mention how heavily it is advertised down here....... it's really bad. Thank you so much for sharing this and encouraging us to embrace the season of life we are in right now. God bless! Lynn.

Nikki said...

So true, so true. I never thought that the day would come in my lifetime that I would start to feel "left out" or "behind the times", if I hadn't had a brow lift, or tummy tuck, or liposuction, or some other such ridiculousity! Seriously, the comparison and competition is just getting crazy. I don't buy into the whole "I'm doing it for me" thing. Yeh, you do it so that YOU feel good, when OTHER PEOPLE see you! Show me just one cave dweller who gives a toss about cosmetic surgery!

Tonya said...

If it makes you feel better, I will definitely look 50 when I'm 50. Maybe even older than 50! I don't wash my face before bedtime, rarely wear makeup, have Dawn highlight my hair once a year, get my hair cut about 2x per year, etc. I try to remember to put sunscreen on, but don't succeed lots of days. So, when I'm 50, we can hang out and people will think we're 70! (Since all the other 50 year olds will have spent so much time trying to look 20!) Seriously, I believe that we are to be attractive to our husbands. Thankfully he doesn't mind stretched out, stretch marked, wrinkled and tired. :-)