For the Love of Pete!

I don’t know who this Pete fellow is, but please, ladies, we’ve got to stop trying to look 25 when we’re 65. Yes, I’m on a bit of a rant, but you all know what I’m talking about–women (and some men) who won’t accept that they we all look different as we get older. I’m not talking about trying to be your healthiest best. I’m talking about radically and usually surgically, desperately trying to show the world a face that doesn’t exist anymore. And in trying so hard to look like someone we no longer are, we lose out on the real beauty that only comes with age.

We’ve all seen the aging actresses who’ve bought into the Hollywood lie that they have to look like a Barbie doll to get parts, with the result being a face that should only appear in a movie about the Joker from Batman. This is the extreme example that comes from an exclusive environment most of us don’t live in. But how many of us have also bought into the lie that we’re not as good, pretty, useful, or interesting because we have wrinkles and age spots?

Come on! Let’s get real. Every year we live, if we’re willing, we get the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. By now, at age 62, I have the equivalent of several Ph.D’s in mistake correction. And I am done buying into the lie that I should try to look younger than my actual age. I earned these crows feet and laugh lines and intend to be grateful for who I am today. Even more, I plan to embrace my true self–every pudgy-bulged, thick-ankled, puffy-eyed square inch of me–as I get older every year.

I firmly believe that if we older women would embrace our real, true, authentic beauty, we could teach the world that beauty is ageless. Every year we live is a gift. We’re all just a flash away from going to meet our maker, and down deep, everyone knows that’s true. We don’t have a second to waste on the futility of trying to stop time. Instead, let’s start a revolution that proudly says, “I once was young (sigh) (head hung low), but now I’m old!” (glee in our voices, heads held high, smiles on our beautiful old faces, and twinkles in our eyes). Psalm 37:25.

Pete will be so proud.

Amen and amen.