Ageless Beauty

I am a people watcher, and I love faces. Baby’s faces are precious with their little puckers and pouts and children’s faces are joyous to watch when they are excited and happy. Oftentimes at the mall I look at the faces of the shoppers and try to imagine what’s going on in their heads as they hurry from one store to another. But the best faces are those of the elderly.

I’ve heard several older people say, “I’ve earned every one of these wrinkles,” and it’s true. Each face is etched with signs of happiness and sorrow. If we are lucky enough to live long enough, our faces become a road map of our lives. The frown lines between the eyes tell a story of concentration, or lines around the eyes tell a story of laughter. Each line or wrinkle adds to the character of the person in question.

When we are young, say in our teens or 20s, we don’t worry much about wrinkles or getting old. By the time we’re in our 30s and 40s we women especially, start fretting about the laugh lines around our eyes and spend millions of dollars each year trying to erase them. By the time we’re in our 50s and 60s we’ve pretty much accepted that we don’t look “young” anymore, but we’re still trying to erase the appearance of age. But to me, it isn’t until your 70s, 80s and 90s that the face takes on a wonderful character of its own.

Old age is a relative thing. Now that I’m in my 50s, 70 is still young. I’m sure to someone in their 70s or 80s that perception changes. I think I mentioned in a previous column that inside every “old” person is a young one. Our bodies may let us down from time to time, but happily our spirit remains young if we let it.

Perhaps the current perception of aging beauty is attributable to the Baby Boomers. We are, after all, getting older. I am a Baby Boomer and as I age I look back at how that unique group of people has changed the world around them. Each stage of our lives has impacted fashion, cosmetics, car manufacturing and medicine, just to name of few areas. Ever noticed how many advertisements are aimed at aches and pains, diseases of the aging, or the failings of our bodies? The target market is growing older. Beauty creams and hair color products are aimed at men and women both. But there is nothing more beautiful than a man or woman accepting age with grace.

Really look at the faces around you. Appreciate and find the beauty in them all, including our own. We may rail against growing older, but then, it beats the alternative.