Aging Gracefully

Oh, to age gracefully. How many times have you heard this term? It seems that we hear/read it more and more these days, as people seem to be obsessed with physical beauty, cosmetic surgery, non-invasive procedures, etc.

How many times do we see celebrities be praised for how flawless they still look when they are older or put down for how older they look than their age? Don’t body shame, body positivity but that is okay. Especially if we don’t like the person. However, if the people of the opposing political wing do it, they are evil and low.

People rejoice in seeing people looking not that good and not youthful. Like that is a crime. It’s not. Life is like that sometimes and they probably just decided to not enhance themselves surgically or in some way along those lines.

So many people who are praised, just enhanced their appearance artificially, which is also shamed many times, especially when it’s botched. That enhanced appearance or great genes are the definition of aging gracefully. And I hate it.

It’s fine if people surgically transform themselves to feel better. It’s also fine if they don’t. Why do we deny nature and normal things up until this point, like wrinkles? And what does it have to do with grace?

For me, aging gracefully has much more to do with actions than beauty. Beauty in actions. And we demean people full of grace, who wear their wrinkles like jewelry, unapologetically, like it’s almost a character flaw.

That culture, which we contribute to, comes back to us later in life. Not all of us have money for procedures or courage or whatever is necessary. And then it’s not funny anymore. Then it’s depressing and we want empathy. Many times, we are unable to completely give it to ourselves and struggle to accept aging.

I don’t judge people who apply botox but I think that sometimes it’s a bit nicer to have some movement on your face. Even if you have wrinkles. Again, not shaming anyone, it’s an aesthetic choice that doesn’t concern anyone but the person who does it.

I plan to do some sort of procedure for my skin imperfections, that is something that I’ve always wanted. Something non-invasive but I’ll keep my little wrinkles. Obviously, I care about the aesthetic side a bit too, mainly because of first impressions. If some imperfection makes you feel upset or sad or uncomfortable, why not change it? However, you don’t need procedures to age gracefully. You don’t need to risk your life, especially going under the knife, when many times, you could use a part of that money on a bit of therapy, which could help.

We see people starting on one procedure and ending up doing several ones or even many. There is no such thing as perfection, nor do we need it to be happy or to be graceful. But I get the pressure, we get comments. “You’re old”, etc. Ageism is getting worse and worse. But I believe that it’s important to push back by not conforming to the “dictatorship” and unpleasant comments of other people.

It’s okay if that’s not for you, we always need to pick our battles. I know that you are helping others or making society better in other ways (if you read my blog, I know that you are great! Hehe). So it’s not a loss, it’s just a sensitive issue. We all have them. Like me with my skin.

But my wrinkles are not an issue for me. I don’t want to age gracefully. I want to age however I age, it doesn’t matter. Gracefully, “uglyly”. My actions will hopefully be graceful, beautiful and kind, as much as possible. My face and body, nothing is guaranteed but I will try to keep loving myself. Keep working out, do my little skin care. Just basic self-care.

But aging gracefully? Whatever happens, happens.