Two-Faced?

A lot of people nowadays are doing cosmetic surgeries, namely face-lifts. It's a trend that I see more and more with each passing year. A Hollywood star does her nose, another does her chin, while another get a tummy tuck still, all in a futile attempt of holding on to their ever fading youth. Society has us, especially women, believing that in order to be beautiful we must possess the bosoms of Lara Croft, lips of Angelina Jolie, abdominals of Brad Pitt, and the ass of a twelve year old. This is not only unattainable to the general population, which may perhaps explain the perpetual lure to achieve it, but it is ridiculous as well. We ought not, as both individuals and as a society, seek to validate our sense of identity and self worth based solely on our transient external body.
When I first started writing this, I had a hard time deciding on one field of cosmetic surgery to talk about. They were all so interesting. I finally settled on face-lift because I realized how much a face can mean. If the eyes are the windows to our souls, then the face must be the storybook of our lives. Every wrinkle, every line, is a testament to some part of our life. Every scar represents old wounds we overcame with courage and grit. To permanently alter our face is to distort our identity and to live in denial of who we really are. Marilyn Monroe, the woman widely regarded by many, even today, to be the most beautiful woman of the twentieth century, once said: “I want to grow old without face-lifts. They take the life out of a face, the character. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I’ve made.” Perhaps there is more to beauty than we think.
In our society, we associate youthfulness with beauty. That is not wrong; youth does have its appeal. The problem appears when we become narrow sighted and start placing a premium on looking young at the expense of other things. Our smooth skin fades and wrinkles take its place. Crows feet form around the eyes if we smiled a lot. Lines upon our foreheads accumulate if we are prone to frowning. Our eyes can stay bright, burning as if afire, if we had not relinquished our passion for life. Or it can be dimmed and glazed over if we allow ourselves to become bored and staled. Kindness may shine through our face, like my grandfather, he was the gentlest soul I knew, or it can be wrapped in bitterness and pain.
We make choices every day, every second of our life. The body remembers. It stores fear and trauma. It also remembers smiles and laughs. The face is no exception.
Someone once told me that it takes more facial muscles to frown than to smile. Maybe that is a sign of how we ought to live our lives? Some people may claim that they wish to change their external body to match their insides. To them I say this: after this operation, what is next? Breast enlargement? Tummy tuck? Butt implants? Or god forbid, penile enlargement? Forget all of the political-correctness for a second. Will this really, truly make you a happy person? For good? Or will you still be unsatisfied and want more? If you cannot accept yourself, how can you expect others to really accept you?