Time for revelations

I'm reading from Nora Ephron's book I Feel Bad About My Neck: Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five [imagine fifty!]

I’m back. Back with cosmetics et sequentes. Back with my amateur advices regarding cosmetics, back with registering our shared insecurities, back with discussing beauty regimes, back to controlling the demoralizing effects of time.

It is this period of the year, a few days before exposing our pale -still in winter mode- bodies. Bikini time and exfoliation, painful waxing, massages and extra hours in the gym along with total starvation become our daily routine in a desperate effort to be thirty-five again. We stand in front of mirrors, pulling our skin back or up, starring at a youthful version of our bodies. During this difficult time I would like to remind us all that there is little we can do to cover our imperfections when standing naked in an overhead light…

But let’s snap out of this and be serious. If we are fifty and have cared for ourselves a bit, loved ourselves, then we are much better than our thirty-five year old versions. Do you remember all other insecurities we had, and we have by now managed to control? Do we really care how our skin looks? Don’t we know the value of being loved for who we are and what we could give to the one we love? So, get rid of any cover-ups you’ve bought, go to the beach in your bikinis and give those thirty-fives one more reason to feel insecure: remember how insecure we were when our boyfriends were starring at those gorgeous, confident older women with those great, flirty smiles? Yes, let’s flirt this summer.

In a few days I will be in one of those beaches and I will be sending you all a great smile. Do the same… I will be looking for you.