I was struck by a post on Facebook by a friend of mine. He was looking at a recent picture of Madonna. She has had some work done on her face to keep wrinkles at bay and in truth, looks very little like the Madonna I remember from when I was a 20-year-old.
It’s an odd thing to tackle the challenges of aging. We all go through this slow dance of destruction, with graying hair and sagging paunch. The wrinkles and crinkles that somehow, we have to defy and demand that they stay youthful.
I always wonder why the idea of looking in your early 30’s is the high-water mark of looks. There must be some sort of association with our human need to reproduce I assume. Having a body and face that looks like you could still have a child or two is sort of hotwired into our human condition.
Even men, who seldom do the preparatory work that women do in keeping their skin looking good have recently got into the act of having some youth producing procedures to maintain a young look. Again, the idea itself is perhaps tied to a belief that perhaps by pushing the clock back on our faces, we somehow buy ourselves more time. Nothing is further from the truth, though. I always think of Joan Rivers, the late comedian, who kept getting facelift after facelift. It didn’t change anything in the end. Neither did the work really work on Kenny Rogers. He didn’t look like himself after a while. For myself, the idea of aging with a measure of grace and a crease or two will have to do. Those artists and musicians who somehow look even better as they get older most likely have to do with the way they act from the inside.