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The Truth About Eternal Youth & Why To Take Better Care of Your Feet
Age might ravage your face, but ageism can break your spirit
Watching TV with Marge in 2021, the news is interrupted by a commercial for a miracle anti-aging cream. As if. She mutes the sound, and I fill the silence:
“I have friends who’ve had plastic surgery,” I say, remarking as well that my daughter, then barely past 50, tells me some of her contemporaries started having Botox in their 40s.
“I won’t do it,” I insist and tick off my two reasons, each equally important: to strike a blow for aging naturally and because if I had surgery and didn’t like the result, I’d look in the mirror for the rest of my life and have only me to blame.”
Marge gets it. She’s 103, still beautiful, and undoubtedly old. She has her priorities straight:
“I take better care of my feet than my face because I need them more.”
I’m 25 years younger than Marge, but by now I don’t need my face either. I still turn a few heads, but culturally conditioned eyes — men’s and women’s — are drawn to youth. Sadly but not surprisingly, we are judged by our looks.
…good-looking people are valued, seen as socially competent and powerful, sexually responsive, intelligent, and…
