Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Face at 45

It was once said to me that, at 45, the face you have is the face you deserve. The bodies of the young are able to hide their sins. The bodies of adults (and adulthood does not really begin until one's powers reach their summit - 45 perhaps) bear the marks of their sins. This is why some of the old are beautiful and why some are ugly.

2 comments:

Anna said...

Recently my adopted grandmother died. (she is the mother of the lady who took me in after my own mom passed away)

She was the sweetest most humble person I have ever met. Especially in the last years of her life she just glowed with a beauty that can come, I think, only from God. I have never met anyone so beautiful, even the young in the prime of their life.

Dr. M said...

I know exactly what you mean. I hope to be like that when I die.

Some die withdrawn and pinched-off. I don't mean to judge but only to report how their faces seem to me. Why is this? Is it fear?

I should have said in my post that the body bears not only one's own sins but the sins of the world as well. Sin - both personal and corporate - writes upon the body, and at mid-life I think its message can be easily read if one but knows the language.