Quick Fix Addictions… Sunday Musings
I had the poster on my wall in college: “God grant me patience. And I want it RIGHT NOW!” We don’t wait for bread to rise, for food to grow in the garden, to lose weight naturally. We tap our fingers impatiently when the microwave oven is taking too long (2 minutes!) to heat our coffee.
We want to look younger, leaner, more beautiful… NOW. Going under the knife or being injected by a foreign substance is regarded as ho-hum every day stuff.
In 1997 there were just over 2 million “cosmetic procedures” in the US. By 2001, that had increased to 8.5 million: a 304% increase. Not surprisingly, 88% were women. By 2005, procedures had reached 11.5 million.
Some of the procedures are simple: laser hair removal, a little shot of botox. Others require long periods of recovery. Some solve difficult problems: cleft palate comes to mind.
But what are we doing to ourselves? Why do we believe that those photo-shopped models in magazines and in TV commercials are real? When will we start to be OK with who we are, where we are, how we are?
It breaks my heart when I see thirteen-year-old girls who’ve obviously had plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons; when I see beautiful young women who are robust and healthy, wishing they could be thinner. And it really breaks my heart when I read about Lindsay Lohan or the Olsen twins and see how emaciated and messed up they are.
What’s our message to our youth? To our men and women trying to make it through their lives with some meaning? Why don’t we teach that some things take time? That adolescent bodies are supposed to be a little heavier than usual to prepare for the growth spurt? That if you diet too much in your teens you can damage bone growth in your later years?
Why not teach that beauty doesn’t come in jars and surgeon’s knives… it comes from within. It comes from coming to terms with who you are and celebrating that. Beauty is a new mom in a hospital bed, hair plastered to her forehead, no makeup, relief and joy covering her face as she holds her first baby.
Beauty is a kid riding the bike alone for the first time as a proud parent stands behind after letting the bike go, clutching their elbows in trepidation and joy.
Beauty was a five year old girl this morning at the Easter service secretly pulling a quarter out of her shoe and putting it in the offering plate. It was a young woman walking up to a 95 year old grand dame and handing her a candy easter chick.
Good things don’t always come at microwave speed. Beauty doesn’t come from cosmetic, shallow changes. You can operate and shoot botox and change your looks all you want. Who you ARE will always shine through.
Work on that.
Like I said last time: How long do you think you’ve got?
Happy Easter
Beth
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Beth Terry, CSP, is a Professional Speaker, Corporate and Convention Trainer, and author of two books. Find her on the web.
© 2008 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc. All international rights reserved.
