Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

 

      Are you pleased with your facial features? Do you have your favorite face creams, lotions, and foundations? Have you considered facial improvements with surgery or botox? We are surrounded by beautiful faces in the media and wish to improve our own. We want to look like air-brushed models with perfect eyes, noses, cheekbones, and lips. There is a new trend called 'face positivity ' that is encouraging women to revert to the 'au naturel' look.

    When I was growing up, my mom had a subscription to "Vogue Magazine." She loved to look at the latest fashions on the chic models on slick pages. I did too and wished I looked like the tall, sleek models in beautiful outfits with perfect skin. There were no freckles, blemishes, or scars to be seen. The sophisticated models posed in perfect outfits on Fifth Avenue, New York City, and on yachts in the Caribbean. They ran through leaves at countryside mansions or walked their poodle past skyscrapers. I wanted to look like them and have the same adventures. The pages were full-page glossy ads for cosmetics, hair products, and skin creams. I wanted to try them all and buy them all. I hated my thick, wavy hair when all the models had long, straight hair. At age 14, I used "Sun In" to turn my hair blond, but it was the orange-colored straw for months. In the news today is a lawsuit by four women who claim they got uterine cancer from a Clairol hair straightener product. When will we ever learn as Peter, Paul, and Mary sang in the 1962 song, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

    I got a subscription for my 13th Birthday to "Seventeen" magazine which is still on newsstands today. The models don't have acne, braces, or a space between their front teeth like I did. I didn't even get my ears pierced until college. I wore lip gloss, but no eye makeup. I grew up in a time when we wore dresses to public school. Finally in High School, we were allowed to wear jeans. Then it became cool to dress like hippies in bell bottoms, psychedelic shirts, and rainbow dresses. Actually, that is the fashion nowadays. What goes around, comes around. I am wearing my jean bell bottoms today with a peasant, I feel like I'm in college again. I may not have the perfect skin or face I dreamed of, but feel comfortable with my body. I just had my worst Passport Photo taken at Walgreens after a long day teaching First Graders. It looks like a mug shot. Now I have to look at this Passport photo for the next ten years. It does make me laugh every time I see it, but no one has laughed at the Airport. This is a big step for me in 'body positivity that I didn't have my photo retaken. Maybe I am learning to accept what I look like at my age. 

    Some days I look better than others. It depends on how much sleep I've had, my mood, and my exercise. At age 68, I feel pretty good about my face. I have seen better faces of women my age in the media. However, I am a mother of five children, and four grandchildren, and have been married for 46 years. That is a lot to be proud of and my face shows it. Now my hair is any other matter!