What would you say to a lady who didn’t smile for 12 years so her face would not begin to wrinkle? Me, I would say, “Wow your face looks good but your body is a mess!”
Not really, I probably would think it though. I don’t remember achieving my first wrinkle, but I did keep my first gray hair which is as we speak taped to the side of my jewelry box that contains all my tiny buried treasures from years gone by. Now though, there are one or two or 50 little creases in my face I prefer to speak about them as crinkles, not wrinkles. They are, each and every one or two of them, fully developed and paid for by my life lessons and adventures. My face crinkles when I smile much better than it wrinkles when I’m worried. So I try to worry less and smile more.
But that lady, the one who didn’t smile for 12 years? What has she got to smile about now? Can she go back say eight years ago and smile now about the time her kids had a huge water fight in the kitchen when the youngest one got engaged and the whole family joined in the fun? Can she smile now at the thought of her brother getting his picture taken just as he was blowing a smoke ring and the laughter that followed? Sure she can, but is it the same as enjoying the moments as they explode in your life, come crinkle or not? Nope. You need to crinkle all along life’s highway, pot holes and smooth sailings alike.
I can picture three people in my life, young to old and by their faces I can tell which ones have the best stories to tell. Even someone in say their 20s can have crinkles of life. A 20-something gal I know has the best little tiny crinkles developing around her mouth. She can and has chased parents and siblings for years through their trials and tribulations. Now with her own children she laughs and her face crinkles about her life as though the things she tells me about are what everybody goes through. She’s amazing to me.
On the other hand I know a guy who has not a crinkle even though he’s over 60. He worked, don’t get me wrong, but he forgot to stop along the way and enjoy things happening in his life and family. Now he’s determined to get the crinkles he missed. I wish him well but I also wish he could have crinkled along the way instead of trying to play catch up.
The third person is actually people in general. They try to cover, plump up, fill in, or tie back their crinkles. I call the aisle in the store that houses the creams, masks, and miracle elixirs for your face, the aisle of youth. I need to speed through it to get to the seasonal candy aisle when I shop a particular store so I see many types of faces as I wiz by. But recently I stopped just to see what all the hoopla was about.
As I have said before, “Holy cats and kittens Batman!” Have you checked out the price of being crinkle-less? There are jars and tubes of stuff worth hundreds of dollars maybe even thousands of dollars in that aisle. A teeny, I mean teeny tiny jar of “I promise to make you look 18 forever” cream was $49.99. Really!
I tend to look at the top shelf as that’s usually where the weird stuff is. And yes there I found a product that if you dab it below your eyes then hold the skin taunt for a few minutes your eyes stay that way. See your mom was right, “If you aren’t careful your face will freeze like that!” But she forgot to say it would cost about $38.99 for each treatment.
I’m all for moisturizing. I don’t want my crinkles to get all flakey and disgusting looking. But I wonder sometimes if there really is a difference between the big ole bottle of slather on lotion of the month for $3.99 and that teeny tiny jar for $49.99. If you happen to know if there really is a difference let me know.
Remember, your face is the road map of your life. Once it’s unfolded you can never fold it back up to make it look the way it did when it came from the factory.
Trina Machacek lives in Eureka. Her book ITY BITS can be found on Kindle. Share your thoughts and opinions with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com.
