Why Getting Old Sucks for Demi but not for Betty

During my usual five minute slap on foundation and eye liner routine the other morning, I really took a look at my face.  And without warning, I saw them.  Lines.  Tons of them - crows feet had taken up residence next to my eyes, a five lane roadway had been constructed on my forehead, and pesky laugh lines had barricaded my lips!  

In the blink of an eye, I am no longer the twenty something who looks younger than everyone in the room. Instead, I am the "mom" in the office - the one who has been there, done that and lived to tell about it.  I was so busy rushing through my twenties and thirties that I never really stopped to think that I'd ever have to deal with looking old.  But suddenly, here I am.  In my forties getting advice from friends and clients about where I should go for botox (Bat Mitzvah botox is all the rage incidentally). And me, who has always been adamantly opposed to injecting poison in my face is seriously considering it!

The funny thing is, now that I'm committed to losing weight, the lines are showing up even more on my face. Now I know why I should have just kept the weight on - when you're pudgy, you might not feel good, but your laugh lines don't show as much.  That's why when I see celebrities like Demi Moore looking haggard - honestly who wouldn't look that way after the year she's been through - I have to say, I feel sorry for formerly gorgeous actresses and models who made their living on their looks only to see it fade away in front of their eyes. Sure Demi is still gorgeous, but it appears as if she's trapped in the past - wishing she could reclaim her younger self instead of having to party with her daughter while attempting to pick up guys less than half her age.  

And what about poor Heather Locklear?  TV's gorgeous bad girl who you loved to hate is now in her fifties and looking pretty crappy.  Her engagement to Jack Wagner (aka Frisco Jones to me), was called off and she's allegedly addicted to alcohol.  And her face?  You guessed it, covered with lines.  And a bit of plastic surgery too, but when you look like you've had work done, that's not a good thing.  Poor Meg Ryan can attest to that one.

Then there's Madonna.  While she looked radiant during the Superbowl, as I watched her stand next to performers who were half her age wearing a cheerleading costume, she looked awkward - as if she was trying to keep up with them but wasn't doing a great job at it.  At one point, she lost her footing on one of the bleachers and nearly took a nose dive, thank goodness she didn't - you could only imagine the pain she would have endured at her age. Incidentally, before her performance, Madonna had injured her hip and her nose while she was rehearsing.  A hip injury?  If that's not an old lady affliction, I don't know what is.  

Don't get me wrong - I love that Madonna is performing in front of audiences again.  But the Madonna I remember convinced me and my teenage girlfriends to wear black bands up and down our arms, tie rags around our heads and pair combat boots with leggings and lacy skirts.  Today's Madonna is over the top, wearing clothes that are way too young for her.  While celebrating this year's Superbowl at our friends' house, I completely felt old when a little boy looked at the TV screen, pointed to Madonna and said "Who's that?"  Ugh.

It's pretty depressing to see celebrities who built their reputations on their looks suddenly hit a point in their life where the beauty starts to fade and they become desperate - dating man boys who were born after they had hit their prime, or seeking escape with drugs and alcohol.  Thankfully, there are some actresses who actually embrace the aging process and still look pretty amazing. Just look at Betty White - one of the most busiest women in Hollywood these days whose looks haven't changed in more than 20 years.  Granted, she is 90, but I hope I look like I'm 70 when I'm her age!   Then there are timeless beauties like Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts - who isn't exactly old yet, but is around the same age as me so I put her in the same category and am hoping for the best.  

The cold-hearted truth is, no matter how hard we try, we all get old and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Sure plastic surgery or some shots of botox might mask it for a while but at the end of the day, there is one really great thing about being older.  You've made your mistakes already.  You've had great experiences and bad ones and you are smarter and wiser for it.   And the best part is, when you get older, you can finally slow down.  I don't know about you, but I hate being on a constant treadmill where I look up at the end of the day and it has literally flown by.  The lines on my face show me that life is not supposed to be a sprint.  It's the longest marathon of your life filled with memories that make you the person you are today.  To be honest, the reason I have so many laugh lines is because I love to smile and crack jokes - and if the alternative is to look miserable or get botox injections, I think for now, I'll stick with my lines and enjoy the next decade.