Better With Time .......

As I endeavored to do my ritualistic daily online research this morning …. BTW isn’t ‘google’ a wonderful thing …. on HGH – specifically, ‘Human Growth Hormone’ – in relation to my ongoing quest to remain vital and youthful despite my chronological age, I couldn’t help wondering how we – as Americans – managed to get this all wrong. We are no doubt a ‘youth obsessed society’ valuing most those who are fortunate enough to find themselves in the incubation stage of life before they are hatched into an all too real and oftentimes cruel reality that can age one beyond his or her years. We place them high upon a pedestal, sometimes even awarding the most unique among them ‘celebrity status’ despite the fact they have yet to accomplish any real thing of value in terms of a societal contribution.

We are ‘Americans’ …. the civilization that championed the Industrial Revolution and gave the world and its inhabitants the World Wide Web. We may not have invented technology, but we learned how to maximize its use in terms of a global economy. We created automobiles and airplanes alike and as a young nation, managed to shore up a strong enough Department of Defense that no one dared challenge our authority and everyone who was anyone came to us first for support when it came to shoring up their own line of defense against aggression. In short, we are the ‘good guys’ and every American I know takes considerable pride in that fact, and when it comes to innovation, we are the ‘gold standard’ everyone else tries to emulate.

However, when it comes to aging gracefully, we somehow managed to miss that class. Take “Vogue Magazine” for instance, its editors and publishers, haunted by declining circulation, were forced to bastardize its image by placing ‘celebrity couple du jour’ Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on a recent cover. Okay …. they are pretty people ….. but while I can hardly blame those in charge for resorting to such tactical measures to boost subscriptions, I have to ask, “What’s next? Who will be the next icon to sink to tabloid tactics in order to make a few bucks?”

Maybe Gotham’s own RHWONY (Real Housewives of New York) will grace the cover of an upcoming “New Yorker”. All I can think about is the insanity of it all when a time-honored institution is forced to stoop so low for the sake of the almighty dollar. Anna Wintour must have had to gulp hard when the pre-press issue made its way across her desk for prior approval.

For decades now women everywhere from all walks of life have poured through “Vogue’s” pages obsessing and dreaming about how they, themselves, could knock of the latest runway trend in the form of certain shade of lipstick, a haircut, a hem length or a total ‘look’ all in the name of personally owning some small part of the world of high fashion for themselves as a means to remain relevant in a world that changes at warp speed. But while few can identify with a hip hop artist who has enjoyed some measure of success, even fewer can see themselves as a woman who took the equity from her father’s infamous name and parlayed that with an ambitious stage mother willing to sacrifice her own marriage in exchange for her children’s ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ into a modest capital empire. Can the merit of haute couture no longer stand on its own?

Unfortunately the problem goes much deeper than “Vogue” as we’ve become a society who places value upon all the wrong things. Everyone likes to look good and feel good – I am no different – but the problems occur when we assume someone who is both young and beautiful is someone we should all want to emulate just by virtue of the fact they have been fortunate enough to option their looks into cold, hard cash. What I think is in order is a total ‘shift in consciousness’ to the point that we – like other cultures – actually ‘value’ that which comes only through age and experience. Why is it our culture likes to hide the elderly away in assisted living facilities and nursing homes so we don’t have to stare our own mortality in the face? Is a laugh line, crow’s feet or a few gray hairs really so bad? There’s a reason why antiques and fine wine’s value increases with age …. it is quite simply 'better'.

There’s times when I’m undressing to shower that I blur my vision so that I don’t have to zero in on my imperfections, but truth is I wouldn’t actually ‘go back’ even if I were given the choice. I like that my children are grown and I have grandchildren to spoil on occasion. I like the fact that I’m no longer struggling to define myself …. that I know who I am, what I value most and not to sweat the small stuff. I don’t really care that I’m a little slower on the uptake, or that I forget things more often than I used to or that I don’t wear high heels every single day of my life. I enjoy the fact that I can find solace in quiet time or by reading a good book and that communing with nature oftentimes feels like a religious experience. I never took the time to notice when I was younger, because there were too many things I wanted to do, but not so much anymore. I also know that both ‘loving’ and ‘being loved’ are the onlytwo priceless things that no amount of money can buy and that one day my time on earth will be through, but that’s okay …. “To everything there is a season …. a time to live and a time to die” …. so why not make the most of whatever season you happen to find yourself in, because life is precious, and it is sinful to squander even a moment worrying about how well you will age.