Blessed are the average, for they shall age well

the silver lining of not being beautiful

Not long ago, vanity was considered a sin; now it is considered a sin not to be vain. If a woman doesn’t spend a large part of her time and income on her appearance, she is considered lazy and unkind. When she eases up on a white-knuckled physical maintenance regime, we say she must be depressed. She must not love her partner. She has “let herself go.” What an interesting phrase.

I’m not saying that we should all stop brushing our hair and eat Funyuns in front of the television all day. What I’m saying is that it is not a sin to skip the waxing, threading, teasing, and vajazzling, the toxic hair dye and the four figure face creams. If our hands care for others, not the other way around, we should not feel we’re slipping.

I have never been considered beautiful, a truth that caused me much pain and anxiety until fairly recently. In my years of peering into the world of the lucky ones, I never realized that when you are beautiful, you worry about when you will not be beautiful any more. The friends I once envied have now begun to panic as their bodies betray them with varicose veins and stealthy gray hairs. One friend, who has put SPF on her hands for as long as I’ve known her so as to avoid ending up with the claws of a crone, is determined to “age well.” Another interesting phrase. I assume that it means hiding the evidence.

As I look around me, I wonder if the older women I find most beautiful are those who were not beautiful in their youth. They are the ones with the silver hair and the laugh lines, the ones who wear shoes that make them smile. It’s probably just wishful thinking. But maybe we will become the lucky ones.

Blessed are the average; for they shall age well.