My face fell, and it can’t get up. There comes a natural part of aging when things go south and there isn’t much you can do about it except for the knife or the chemicals. We all know this, and we  do everything we can so that the checkout boy doesn’t automatically assume we are an old person and should receive the senior discount. Of course we want to receive the senior discount, but we want to be asked and we want to have a choice as to whether we want to claim our age.

There is nothing so startling as viewing yourself in your phone camera lens right after you wake up in the morning. It is scary, as the wrinkles are huge, the bags sag and the eyes droop. The face in the camera scares even you.

Most of us don’t wake up in the morning and take a selfie. I would recommend against it unless you want a scare early in the morning. The only reason I was seeing myself was a FaceTime call woke me up, and I had trouble fiddling with my phone. I wanted to immediately hang up. Luckily it was a family member, and they already knew my face falls and it doesn’t get up.

I can see the reason people have eye lifts. If I could afford one I might consider it because I could see better. I realized this one night while watching television. I couldn’t see well out of my one eye. It was as if something was in it. There was something in it — my eyelid. I used my finger to lift up my drooping eyelid and lo and behold I could see.

I’ve always said I don’t mind my wrinkles, but when they scare me when I look in the mirror early in the morning I might have to reconsider.

In reality most people my age have a few problems with things falling and not getting back up. We run with fear at the aging process, but we have a skewed look at the way we feel we should look. We watch movies, look at magazines and see celebrities and they are flawless and look young. I watched Jane Fonda on a television series on Amazon called “The Newsroom” and sighed. Dolly Parton is flawless every time you see her.

The Internet is full of stories about celebrities who haven’t aged well or have had plastic surgery. Then there are the stories and pictures of celebrities with and without makeup. Makeup can hide many wrinkles and flaws. I was shocked one time to see a picture of one of my favorite soap stars. On screen she had flawless skin. Off screen she had a face full of freckles, and I thought she was still beautiful — freckles and all. We don’t want to be the one who’s flaws are revealed.

If you want to get rid of your wrinkles and look like the older celebrities in the magazines, just Photoshop your image and you can erase away the wrinkles on the pictures. They used to do that when I was young and had my picture taken in school or elsewhere. They did away with the bad acne and acne scars. Now I tell them to leave the photo alone. I will own my wrinkles, although after the scary morning FaceTime I am tempted to change my mind.

We live in a world that tells us it is not OK to fall, so we need to do everything we can to cover it up. If we fall we might not get up again. I know my wrinkles will not get up again, although eating right and keeping hydrated does help, unless I chose to use subterfuge to pull myself up by hiding my flaws or having surgery to keep those wrinkles at bay so I don’t have to face the fact I am aging.

I just read an article about churches, which stated the young people are pushing the senior citizens out instead of valuing their experience and using the church as a chance to co-mingle ages — to make use of the young and the old working together to make it a strong unit. Our wrinkles show our age and experience. Some people age better than others because of life’s experiences. It is those life’s experiences that need to be shared. They shape our lives and the world. History shapes the future, and our history is no different. What is experienced by the senior generation needs to be heard and not covered up or ignored.

Recently my 11-year-old grandson wanted to have a conversation about the presidential election. He asked me who I was going to vote for and why. I explained I hadn’t made up my mind yet although I knew who I would not be voting for.

He gave me his opinion, which was very good reasoning, and I was impressed an 11-year-old had the thought processes he did. He had made up his mind if he was able to vote, who he would vote for, and I couldn’t disagree with what he said. I asked him how and where he formed his opinions. His opinions came from his parents and the Internet.

I gave him one more piece of advice, and it was that it was important to listen to his parents’ opinion. I told him he could take what he heard on the Internet, but he needed to make sure his facts were accurate and explained the Internet facts were not always true, depending on what and who he was listening to. I told him before making a decision he should listen to his parents’ views and find a legitimate source for his facts and then make his own decision based on his research. We need to do the same thing whether it is making a decision on an election or how to view the aging process and come to a conclusion as to what is best for us because the media may give us a flawed view of life.

If the only place I relied on to get my information as to what I should look like in my old age was Hollywood and magazines, I would be pretty depressed. If I didn’t know about plastic surgery and Photoshop pictures, I might feel there was something wrong with me. But I know my face falling and eyes sagging are a natural part of aging because of those men and women who are honest about what happens to one’s body in the later years. I have those seniors that came before me and didn’t use all the creams and the eye tucks and erasing wrinkles on photos. They taught me wrinkles will happen, the body will sag and if you listen to accurate information about aging, elections and whatever else happens in life you might not be scared when you see those wrinkles in your FaceTime view. Your face might fall, dire media reports might send you running to hide but you will get back up because you know the truth in a statement made by Franklin D. Roosevelt,  “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He was a great man that I am sure fell many times but got back up because he knew the truth about fear. Do you?

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at hermionyvidaliabooks@gmail.com. Her Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/julie.