The desire for a new look

The village web site, two years old, is being re-launched with a new look*. I'm sure the team will do a great job and continue to provide news and stories to keep us informed and amused.

The desire for a new look has always been around, with the search for the new and exciting, but the current craze for makeover and looking younger does seem remarkable. I, and many others, like the idea of looking 10 years younger; but at what price, both financially and in terms of pain and for what benefit? Will I live 10 years longer, in good health, if I look 10 years younger? From the age of about 12 until 20 most young people want to look older than their age; from then on most people want to look younger, until about 85, when suddenly we can be proud to look as good as we do at the age we are. Odd isn't it?

What is so good about being younger than we are? Why is youth seen as attractive? Why are wrinkles and grey hair seen as a problem and not as a sign of wisdom, experience and maturity (or too much time in the sun)? Why do we, as a society, not value our older people?

Of course, if we all became content with grey hair and the odd saggy bit of skin plastic surgeons and hair colourists would be done out of some of their business, but if we worried less about how old we looked, and got on with enjoying the age we are, then wouldn't that be one less stress in our lives? I overheard someone saying "we should be content to be the age we really are, not pretend to be otherwise". I agree in my head, yet somehow I still don't want to be look my age!

*The webteam is working on this at present.

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