Beauty and wisdom and aging

"The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer." -- Joan Collins

I like this quote because it explains, or makes more understandable, how it must feel to be beautiful when you're young and see your looks change as you age. It also gives me more insight into why women will go to great lengths to preserve their looks (Botox, surgery, etc). If you saw your money trickling away, wouldn't you want to stop that? Or at least stem the tide?

Most especially, though, it makes me rather glad I've never been a beauty. As I age, I don't feel like I'm losing one of my great assets, because my greatest assets have never been my face or body. They're internal. One of the main ones is my imagination. Another is self-discipline.

To be sure, there's a downside to getting older. The knees ain't what they used to be. Or the eyesight. And okay, my hair color? Yep, covering the gray. But that's as far as I've gone.

Otherwise, every wrinkle is a badge of honor, a sign that I've lived and learned and loved and laughed and worried and cried. I can't imagine freezing my face to blank smoothness. If that's your thing, fine, but as I approach another birthday, I'm glad that I feel richer for my years, not poorer. I'm wiser. Calmer. More sure of what's important, and what's not.

And that's beautiful.