It IS hard to grow old gracefully.

You know, I live in a city with lots of plastic surgeons. Most women here have had plenty of Botox and nips and tucks…..and that’s their business.  But it’s becoming commonplace for girls to ask Mom and Dad for breast implants for their 16th birthday present. And the parents are doing it. Not all surgeons will take them on as patients, though. [Good for them.] My point is that if middle aged mothers are making plastic surgery such a big deal, then what kind of message does that send to their children? Here it is:  If  you don’t look va-va-va-voom on the outside, you’re a cooked goose!

Don’t shoot the messenger, but I was just reading that there’s a dramatic increase in psych patients and suicides in young women who have had breast implants for a few years. Why, you ask? Because after a few years they begin to realize that the big breasts didn’t really resolve the inner issues.

When I was a young kid I got an autograph book - that was the popular thing to do back then. Since my mother gave it to me, I asked her for her autograph. On the page she wrote an old poem - sorry, I don’t know the author’s name:

"Look not for beauty nor color of skin,

But look for a heart that is loyal within.

Beauty will fade and skin will grow old,

But a heart that is loyal will never grow cold."

My mom was a wise woman.