Well, I neither belong to the category of 'men and women overly obsessed with looks' nor have experienced the needle and knife ( or would ever think of doing so), sadly used by millions, the world over today, as a desperate measure to look forever young and defy nature. I only keep hearing and reading about it so often and recently when I read a 'tail piece' in the Mumbai Mirror mentioning two top celebrities competing with each other to look younger and more glamorous with the result that they wore barbie doll expressions and could not move their eyebrows, I was appalled and aghast.
This reminded me of a beautiful movie, I had seen ages back, titled, 'Fedora'. This movie was years ahead of its time and really touched my heart and soul It was about an actress who was appreciated by millions of people across the globe, for her beauty and glamour. Now this woman was completely in love with herself and her own biggest admirer. Remember Snow white's legendary step mother's famous line 'Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of all? Well, it so happened that to maintain her youthful looks she was constantly experimenting with potions specially prepared by the beauty experts she was depending upon, with good results for a long time until on one ill-fated day, her face reacted and rejected a particular potion meant to make her look even fairer and younger( fair and lovely?) and she developed wrinkles and aged overnight.
But that was not the end to this horrific tale, for it had another ugly twist...well she forced her equally beautiful young daughter to don a mask of her face, specially created by her beauty experts. So from that day her daughter lived her life, looked like her, acted like her, gave interviews and enacted in movies under the guise of Fedora whereas she continued to live in the shadows unable to accept the reality and face the truth. This continued for a long time till her daughter could not endure the stress of undergoing an identity crisis and hence exposed her mother. And Fedora killed herself for the fear of facing the world with her 'once beautiful face turned ugly for the want of looking eternally young and beautiful'.
Why cannot we accept ourselves as we are? Why cannot we accept and enjoy the changes that happen to us naturally, as we age? Why cannot we simply age gracefully? Now, that certainly does not mean that we stop caring for ourselves. We should continue to take care of ourselves through a healthy diet, regular exercise, keep ourselves up and about and resort to regular beauty care, preferably home remedies. But what we need to avoid is interfering with nature and resorting to gruesome means such as the needle and the knife to remain, 'forever young'. Every living creature has to go through the eternal life cycle of 'being born', 'growth and development', 'maturity', 'procreation' and ultimately 'death'. As human beings we have to accept the roles of being a child, youth, parent, grand parent and even a great grand parent if we are lucky...each of these roles and phases bring their own pains and pleasures that we need to accept gracefully, the most inevitable one of them being 'ageing', the inevitable truth!
Think about it 'consciously and carefully' and accept the sagging body, wrinkles, crinkles, grey hair and all other changes that are a natural course of our journey of and through life. And believe me if you do it with total acceptance, grace and a smile you would still look beautiful enough to make people compliment you, minus the agony of the needle and knife!
I would like to end it with this short poem:
When your beauty and youthful looks begin to desert you,
Why panic and fuss over it and give it importance, undue?
Why not accept it naturally and be at peace with yourself,
Rather than unnecessarily tormenting and torturing yourself?
Rather than resorting to the needle and knife or using botox,
Try adopting natural ways of exercise, healthy diet and detox.
Substitute your anxieties about 'ageing and losing your youth',
With that of, accepting it as naturally as any other eternal truth.
Every stage of life unfolds more beauty that eyes may behold,
Appreciate and accept gracefully,' all that comes, with growing old'.
Instead of resorting to desperate measures of the 'needle and knife',
Let us 'gracefully and graciously' accept this stark reality of life!'
There is nothing more beautiful than a face lined with wrinkles,
Adorned with a silver crowning glory and eyes lined with crinkles.
A person's face beams and shines with wisdom acquired over the years,
So just smile, and keep growing in beauty and grace without any fears.
