looking young

I was watching a commentator on the news this morning who I really like. She is extremely intelligent, insightful and reasonable. While I disagree with her stances on most major issues, I appreciate her view and the reason with which she addresses almost all issues. This morning however, I noticed what we call, "the work she's had done." By this of course I do not mean home improvements, but cosmetic surgery.

I have never really understood the desire to look younger than one is. I know that my view is tainted by the fact that I have always looked young and have striven to look older in the theory that this would make me seem wiser. Not long ago someone told me I was wise beyond my years. When I told him I was forty, he said, "Oh, I guess you're not then." One need look no further than the pitiful attempt at facial hair which cascades over my chin to realize that I rather value looking a little older. All of this is to say that I am indeed biased.

But seriously, what is the benefit of not only looking younger, but of being younger? Is inexperience and naivete the thing we now yearn for, long to be? Does ignorance of issues now carry such a great weight? I think we all need to take a deep breath, throw away the wrinkle cream and the hair color, and not only act our age, but look our age. Now some would say I am a man (I hope you all would say that) and that being a man, makes me additional unaware of the stresses of looking older. I can not tell you how many times I have heard the argument that men look better as they get older and women look older as they get older. In my experience, this is a fallacy. My wife has continued to get more and more beautiful as she has grown older.

I guess I just think we should be who we are. Is that asking too much?