the fragrance, color and texture of a rose increase and intensify with time...as she opens up...
We are quick to judge. Some women choose to color and highlight their hair to hide the gray. Some women wear contact lenses. Other women decide to have their breasts lifted and enhanced, with undergarments and cosmetic surgeons. A lot of women whiten and straighten their teeth. Some women remove hair from their eyebrows, legs, underarms and bikini areas. Manicures and pedicures are very popular. I know a few women who decide to dress like their teenage daughters. Too many women are going around hungry, denying themselves in one way or another. We live in an image-oriented society that seems obsessed with aging...and we are quick to judge.
"One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place a man came up to me. He introduced himself and said:
I've known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you're more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged."
- opening paragraph of "The Lover" by Marguerite Duras, translated from the French by Barbara Bray
I have watched a few of Renee Zellweger's films, but have not really followed her career. A lot of the photographs circulating social media feature an image of the actress from years ago next to a recent image. She seems thinner, with longer and darker hair and perhaps a bit of sunkissed skin. I would guess she decided to have excess eyelid skin surgically removed...a lot of men and women undergo blepharoplasty to correct drooping eyelids that encroach upon and interfere with one's field of vision...
"I'm glad folks think I look different. I'm living a happy, more fulfilling life, and I'm thrilled that perhaps it shows. My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy. For a long time I wasn't doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn't allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things."
- Renee Zewellger
