My stance is that each of us needs to have a loving response to ourselves when we look in the mirror. At 60 years old I like what I see in the mirror. After too long staring at my face microscopically in the bathroom mirror and having a critical view of the skin on my face.
What changed and why do I no longer care about this? I’ve seen an 87-year-old woman with no makeup on her face wrinkles all over and a few extra pounds. She did not resort to $100 face creams or a costly facelift or drastic diet.
My ethic is to frown on going under the knife or on getting fillers and using filters.
The fact that material objects like designer clothes and a Birkin bag are praiseworthy, and our physical pulchritude has always mattered more in society than our health and happiness is whacked.
I feel for Linda Evangelista who has joined the 50+ club. Beauty in traditional terms is often an accident of birth. Such beauty can open doors. Only what’s behind those velvet ropes is often not the best environment for feeling great about ourselves.
Under the strobe lights it can feel good when others stroke you. Wake up in the morning to frizzy tangled hair and the remnants of yesterday’s makeup and you’re back at the drawing board needing more affirmation.
Far better it is for each of us however old we are today to look in the mirror and like what we see. This is the first step in liking others.
Perhaps a dose of listening to the Billy Joel song “Just the Way You Are” is in order. He didn’t want his lover to go changing. The singer liked her just the way she was.
I say it’s time—it’s always the right time—to do what’s harder. It might have been the natural response to be harsh on ourselves.
Let’s take a beat to see the whole picture—that is the whole photo—instead of picking apart each part of our face or body. Find one thing we like about our body. Play that up.
The Beauty issue of Harper’s Bazaar this month has a playlist of songs you can download to listen to. The songs talk about being beautiful.
Left of the Dial 