my occasional musings on life, love, art, perfume ... what else is there?

6.06.2005

I Have To Admit It's Getting Better. It's Getting Better All the Time.


Looking at Michael Jackson -- sadly -- I wonder: at what
point does working on yourself result in a caricature?

Variations on that theme are women "of a certain age" who
hang onto to what they feel were their best years WAY past
the sell-date.

The blue eyeshadowed, darkly liplined, collagen and/or
silicone-enhanced, rapunzel-locked, gray-rooted babes of
yesteryear who just can't give up the fight.

The fight for what? To be sexually viable? To be appealing
to the barrel-chested, balding Lothario in the recliner with
the remote? To appeal to their current fantasy of
male-at-the-top-of-his-game, maybe Bo Bice (!)?

What, who is the fight for?

What about a graceful acceptance of who you're facing in
the mirror?

I'll soon be 54 and life has only become richer for me. I
receive much affection and give much. I have more of a
sense of who I am as a woman and am acknowledged for,
and gratified by, my femininity and my sexuality ...

I had always thought European women had the corner on
this market: the woman coming into her prime. The Anouk
Aimees, Catherine Deneuves, Melina Mercouris et al. But
now I see that American women can become just as
fulfilled in this time of our lives ...

I am more discriminating in all aspects of life ... resulting in
much more benefit to me. Because I am much quicker to
open my hands and set free those things that dissatisfy
me.

So why such fear about aging? Can it not only get better?

Today's fragrance: clearing's Mireille Green Rose, today bittersweet at first, softening down to a beautiful soft rose. Once again, thanks, C.

12 Comments:

Blogger Urban Chick said...

i agree wholeheartedly, M

growing older is woefully underrated

i am glad to live in a continent, well, ok, next to a continent, where the desperate rush to cosmetic surgery does not seem to exist in the same way as it does on your side of the pond

long live wrinkles and gravity-challenged bits of flesh!


UC
xxx

10:38 AM

 
Blogger mireille said...

oh God, it's so much more appealing when you say it, UC!

10:48 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love your question ~who is it we might want to appeal to?:

"To be appealing to the barrel-chested, balding Lothario in the recliner with the remote? To appeal to their current fantasy of male-at-the-top-of-his-game,
maybe Bo Bice (!)?"


LOL!!!

Yes. Who cares.

Bo doesn't.

This is something repeated often at our house with three daughters. I tell them over and over..."No one cares what YOU look like: they only care what you think of what THEY look like."

Such a silly waste of life to attempt to preserve the skin and the hair and the butt, ~to become a "caricature"

You are talking about the preservation of heart. It is completely different.

Long live your heart.

~clearing

10:59 AM

 
Blogger Kyahgirl said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks she's way hotter now than she was 20 years ago. Its got nothing to do with my wrinkles or cellulite. It has everything to do with the stronger, kinder, wiser woman I become with every passing season.

You couldn't pay me enough to go back to my unwrinkled, brown haired younger self. Not unless you'd let me have the current inner me go back too. .

Looking forward to being an old bag with you M!
xoxo
L

1:36 PM

 
Blogger Yesrie said...

"To be appealing to the barrel-chested, balding Lothario in the recliner with the remote?"
-and-
Clearing - "No one cares what YOU look like: they only care what you think of what THEY look like."

Amen!

I like the way my BCB Lothario looks, and I like that my various "as is" physical quirks appeal to him :>

I don't even dye my hair. (It's more of a lifetime record than a philosophical statement at this point, though; I don't wanna start now.) Fortunately I rather like the natural skunk stripes. Whoever wants to go through the saline/silicone/Botox/collagen stuff, that's fine with me--go crazy with it :> But I like George Orwell's* quote: "At age fifty, every man has the face he deserves."

*Sad/ironic note: Orwell died at 46.

1:44 PM

 
Blogger mireille said...

ahhhh, I'm growing older with a GREAT group of women!! love you all.

2:25 PM

 
Blogger BarbaraFromCalifornia said...

Agreed.

Besides, most plastic surgery can be seen in one for or another, albeit, in a face not matching a body, or a face being pulled too tightly.

Long live wrinkles and colored hair!

5:45 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just beautiful, M. And I love all these comments. Need to remember clearing's thing so I can tell my own daughters. It's a full-time job instilling a positive sense of self in young girls these days. Perhaps it always was...

At any rate, what a wonderful group of women we have here. Thanks for all your combined wisdom!

5:52 AM

 
Blogger Val said...

Thanks girls =) I can't tell you how encouraging I find your comments... to know that it only gets better! Thanks also for the advice to daughters. I have one & am expecting my second child this fall so I'm always on the lookout for sage wisdom. I love this site!

11:59 AM

 
Blogger Sand said...

I fear for my generation, we're seriously going to be the generation of the frozen face! It creeps me out when I hear women my age are getting Botox!

8:12 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love all the wise & witty women here and I even love the one I see in my mirror.Age,it is not just a number...it can be a Fiesta! Thanks for reminding me.

8:56 PM

 
Blogger mireille said...

hola, B! Welcome to the Fiesta! *love that*

9:29 PM

 

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