“Do you see that out there? The strange, unfamiliar light? It’s called the sun. Let’s go get us a little.”
~ Nora Roberts, The Hollow
Today promises to be a beautiful sunshiny day. It would be perfect for playing in the garden but we are heading out of town to visit my mother-in-love. Perhaps I’ll be able to get outside when we return later this afternoon.
On another note, it turns out that the deer didn’t eat the daffodils after all. They did, however, enjoy a tasty tulip snack and pulled out a good number of bulbs in the process. I tucked them all back into the flower bed and am hoping for the best. It’s especially disappointing because I had planted a bunch of special red and white tulips in honour of Canada’s 150th Birthday this year.
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In the category of everyone-knew-this-except-me, I just discovered that our smartphones have the ability to work all kinds of magic with photos–in particular selfies. I was playing with settings when I wanted to crop a garden photo I took and noticed a category of “portrait” settings. I don’t, as a habit, take selfies but I took one just to experiment.
Whoa!
It’s possible to brighten and smooth your skin, enlarge your eyes, thin your face, and basically transform reality to something fake like we see in magazines. I ended up with a photo of myself that had little character but in which I looked fifteen or so years younger.
Ever since I found out I’ve been seeing edited profile photos everywhere on social media. It turns out a lot of people are spiffing up their selfies. For a brief moment I considered doing the same but it just didn’t sit right. That smooth-skinned, doe-eyed, thin-faced caricature is not me. I’ve worked hard to earn these wrinkles and to get to the stage in my life where I’m comfortable in my own skin. Why would I want to perpetuate the myth that endless youth is of more value than age and wisdom?
In short–I wouldn’t.
Selfies…I realized quite some time ago, I’m just not “cute” any more. And I’m okay with that, now. I’m nearly 60 and the wrinkles and grays are all earned. I’ve done my time, and they give my face that “grandmother” look. And I love my grandmother look.