SPILLED THE SPOOLS-----------SCATTERED MY THOUGHT

I have returned to post this because my husband snores on the couch.
I skim over a sea of connected topics, but I have no time to do more than skimming, and Hello just froze and stole some more. (NOTE: I wrote HELLO, referring to Hello Picasa, not to the lake of fire.)

I have no really close relationships with older people, and I regret that. I have no memory of my Grandma Johnson, my Grandpa Johnson died when I was in college, and my Grandma and Grandpa Manwaring died when I was 14 years old. I have wonderful memories of my three grandparents whom I did know and love (although I regret not knowing them more than I did).

Anyway, we all know of America's, and, in general, Western society's, doomed pursuit of lost youth. Zillions of dollars are spent for vanity's sake. Age, and the wisdom that should come with age, are not valued, the elderly are shuffled out of sight, and attitudes toward older people often border on shame, if not disdain.

Advertisements and commercials usually portray older people in one of two categories--in a comic, caricatured role or as physically beautiful women with silver hair, a chic sense of style, and an obviously vibrant life (or elderly men with twinkles in their eyes and muscles on their bronzed bodies). "They (and you) aren't old people," the commercials whisper, "just older YOUNG people."

This past week I read a commentary in the newspaper in which the author argued that size and age don't determine loveliness, that the insecurities of consumers are being abused by beauty companies out to make money, blah, blah, blah.... Here's a quote that brought a rueful grin to my face. Writing about Dove's new campaign to include "beauty" of various types, she states (with bold lettering enhancement added by yours truly),

"And I have to tell you, I love what they have done with the results. Their new ad campaign features women of every size and skin color tossing off long bleached-blond wigs in favor of real hair. The company's Web site--campaignforrealbeauty.com--opens with a dazzling photo of a 95-year old women. She's not some pasty-face grandma stooped over in a rocking chair. She's olive-skinned, she's laughing, she's looking right into the camera, and she's more alive than any of the expressionless, Botoxed women you see at the country club. In a word, she's beautiful."

Three of My Gripes:
First of all, she assumed that her readers frequent country clubs, secondly, the featured 95-year old woman is a natural beauty, physically gorgeous any way you cut it (yes, I broke down and went to the site), and thirdly, by making mention of a "pasty-face grandma," she shows that she completely misses the point (along with Dove, I might add). While spouting jargon about the necessity of valuing "real," inner beauty, they simultaneously show their lack of regard for that beauty by showcasing women who are undeniably beautiful physically, even though their beauty isn't of the smooth and twiggy type.

Here are some weary-brained conclusions.
1. The lack of interaction between age groups that begins, in some form, with government schooling and ends with the young and the old having a mutual disregard for each other is lamentable.
2. The experiences of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., should be valued and passed along to us.
3. I don't look forward to diminished physical abilities (and likely mental, too...just look at me in the flower of my youth), but if God allows me to grow old, I hope loved ones value me.
4. Dove's lame "campaign" would have impressed me if they featured a pasty-face grandma stooped over in a rocking chair.

Post script: my teeny-tiny mother says that she grew us children big so that we could carry her from room to room when she's old, and there are 7 of us to improve the odds of one of us taking her into our home when she's 105 instead of being tossed in a nursing home.

I plan to have 47 children of Anak. My odds will be even better.