Stop the Insanity

Monday, June 23, 2008 - Remdua

At What Point do we stop the Insanity?

So… I have to say that when I saw this ad for the new television program She’s Got the Look, something in me wanted to scream. Or at least groan a little bit.

I mean, at what point do we stop competing with others on the basis of appearance? Do we really want to live our lives trying to alter our bodies, wear the perfect clothes, buy the best makeup and hair stuff, etc. so that we can finally accomplish what our culture defines as “not average”?

OK – so I do most of those things. (No body altering, though, just for the record…) And while there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good and be stylish, as a thirty-six year old woman, I feel a deep and ever-increasing urge to reject the idea that I’m not allowed to age.

Why can’t we be human? What’s wrong with being normal? Why can’t we look our age and not have to apologize for it? At what point do we stop this insanity?

And it IS insanity.

Yesterday I was in a popular department store and came upon a woman who, at first glance, seemed youthful. She was slim, was wearing a cool outfit, and, most importantly, had great hair. But then she turned around and I saw her face. Have you heard of “trout lips”? Well, she had them. In fact, her face was so distorted by her cosmetically enhanced lips that it was hard to accurately estimate just how old she was, though I would guess her to have been in her forties. Trying to be thirty.

My heart sank for this woman. I imagined her sitting in the doctor’s office, having needles poked into her lips, in the hopes that she would emerge more beautiful, more confident, more – dare we say – worthy, somehow. Instead, she just looked weird. Probably a lot less attractive than if she’d kept the face God gave her.

Something in me just wanted to shake her just a little. “We don’t have to live this way!” I wanted to tell her. And guess what? We don’t!

Let’s fight back, I say. Now, before the early plastic surgery age drops from eighteen to thirteen. Now, while we still have time to invest in more important endeavors. Now, when we have the opportunity to impact a world that desperately needs to see the light of Christ - a light that is best reflected through the most imperfect faces.

Wanna be more than just average? Let’s be a part of changing the tide of our culture. They may not make a show about us, but our legacy will live on long after we – and our lips – are long forgotten.

Constance