2016年6月18日土曜日

Investment in physical appearance vs. internal satisfaction

The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen is an actress with whom I worked as a magazine editor. She was already in her seventies when I first met her, and I got speechless with her total elegance.

“Am I a monster?” she jokingly said, indicating that she certainly recognized her own amazing physical appearance.

Every man would love to date her, or some might find her too attractive. I was still in my twenties, but realized youth is not what makes women beautiful. I remember I felt quite embarrassed. That was a unique experience.

In fact, the more I talked with her, the stronger I got convinced it was her unimaginably tremendous effort that achieved her beauty. She even calculated the speed of blinking, angle of her face and every move that extracted her best appearance, not to mention the art of makeup and haircut. That was always the topic of conversations with her husband, too.

In short, almost all of her energy, time and resources were devoted to making her best physical appearance. She was living to look stunning.

I am far from that kind of stoic lifestyle, and admit I’m getting even lazier. I have lost interest in the search of pretty dresses. I’ve got some suits and use them like uniforms at work, exchanging shirts only like men these days. On weekends or holidays I wear T shirts. In fact, the older T shirts get, the more comfortable they feel, so I even haven’t bought T shirts recently.

 The last things I would buy these days: pretty but uncomfortable shoes

My hair grows very quickly, so I have my haircut every month, though. I used to buy a lot of anti-aging cosmetics until several years ago, but recently I kind of give up. 

Meanwhile, I come to invest a lot more in the living environment, such as high-end speakers, gardening, a Dyson vacuum cleaner, a sophisticated air conditioner, etc. Priorities are put on comfortableness over physical appearance.

As such, I am getting further from the totally disciplined actress. I really admire her.