(A mediocre collage of insights; not meant to demean any location or gender)

Come along about Thursday of last week, the premonition that had been lurking in my mind for the last several days became a full-blown realization.

I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Sure, all the health foods available, and the fact that now I was walking and talking with folks who lived in a place where, as most product labels say, can cause cancer in the state of —- had something to do with that premonition.

And sure, the heavy music beat, anywhere and everywhere, had some to do with it also.

But it wasn’t until I was relaxing in a nice little coffee shop, right on the beach, that I started putting all the scattered pieces of what my subconscious had been saying, together.

It was her smile that did it.

She was seated across from a nicer looking young man who wore his cap like I wear them, bill sort of squenched down at the edges.  (he also wore it pulled low over his eyes, which, after listening in for a bit explained itself.)

She: “So do you like, always drink coffee?”

He: (murmured) “Yeah, I like the Americano’s best.”

She: “Does it like, do anything for you?  Because, I, like, used to drink coffee a lot and then I was like, what is this, like, really doing for me.  And I was like, it’s not really doing anything for me, so I’ll quit.”

(murmured comment from him)

She” “So do you have a cutoff time for, like, your coffee?”

He: “No, I can drink it whenever I want.”

She: “See I was like, I can’t drink this stuff any past 7 in the evening, so I’m like, if I can’t drink after seven, why drink it at all?”

(murmured comment)

She: “So have you, like, lived in Cauleefornya all your life?”

(murmured assent)

She: Yeah, I lived in Dallas for 3 years, and I was like, you know, I really like it here.  But it wasn’t until I moved away that I realized how, like, totally landlocked that place is.  I’m like, if I had realized that sooner, I’m sure I would have moved back here sooner.

(murmured assent)

She: “So can coffee actually be good for you?  I mean like, if it doesn’t do anything for you, can it be healthy?”

(murmured thoughts on benefits of coffee.)

*****

I had noticed her smile some, but not a lot, since she really wasn’t happy, even though she was super healthy and all. 

But I had taken note that it was a Botox smile. 

And that made me sad.

Because, have you ever noticed that Botox smiles aren’t happy smiles?  In fact, if you visually cut off the person’s face that is smiling in the middle and look only at their eyes when they smile, it looks like they are ready to cry.

There is no personality in a Botox smile.

And, a decided risk factor can be added to the already risky venture of guessing a woman’s age when they flash their Botox smile. 

You can’t do it by looking at their face.

But I’ll give you a hint.  Look at their hands.  They never Botox them and a person can usually get within 5 years by looking at their hands. 

I’ve risked it enough as a little experiment to know.

I paused and thought long on this; Here I was, in a State where extreme emphasis was put on health, beauty, and youth.  In a sense, you could say they have achieved their goal. 

But their inside health has deteriorated drastically.

And that thought directed me back to something I had written sometime back . . .

*****

I was walking a mall the other day and happened upon a shop named Forever Flawless.  I didn’t step inside, I figured they would take one glance at me and make that shuffle store owners make when they wish to become invisible.  Because I’m not flawless.  And to do a remake to get me there would cost more than I care to spend; I also suspicion the remake would be imperfect when it was all said and done anyway.

But it sure got me to thinking.  My mind went back to a book I had been reading where a certain thought was promoted.  The book said with the approach they recommended, “That we would be one step closer to making ourselves into that designer human being, by modifications to our gene pool, that we all wished to be.”

So let’s follow this through a little way and say we can attain a flawless human body. 

I see certain evidence around that progress is being made to that end.

You can, for a sum, have a surgery done to get hair implants and have a full head of hair. 

There are all types of skin lifts, fat reduction, eye lifts, etc. available. 

Your teeth can have that pearly white look given back to them. 

If you are willing, you can hire a professional eyebrow artist, who, with a string caught between their teeth and two hands will make quick lunges towards your face whilst plucking out unwanted eyebrow hair to give the perfect outline of your choice. 

If you think your lips are the wrong shape, that can be fixed also.  Although I recently saw one that hadn’t quite taken as it should have.  Her upper lip had three definite sections to it and the incision lines were quite discernable. 

Your toes can be straightened; your skin glow can be enhanced, on and anon. 

And finally, after all these fixes to the tired, jaded body some think we have, are made, we’ll have the perfect, flawless forever. 

I see some problems with the forever flawless approach. 

To me, the problems outweigh the benefits by far, but maybe I don’t see it correctly.

What happens to the inside problems?  Do they get fixed somehow in this flawless approach? 

Allow me to explain.

What would have happened, that evening some years ago, when, after a get together with friends, someone called me and said, “I noticed you were looking a little down.  Want to talk?”  If I had my wrinkles all frozen out earlier, those same wrinkles couldn’t have told my friend what I wasn’t saying out loud.  

What if my weight had been scientifically measured and kept in balance all these years?  Would my wife and daughter nudge that pudge I have in my midsection in the friendly way they do now?

Would I spend more time with my personal body trainer than my family?

If every surface of my body were toned to perfection, would I ever be vulnerable?  Could someone tell by my body language, how I was feeling?  Or would I have a sculpted stance ingrained to hold to at all times?

If all joints and bones were aligned perfectly, I would never need any help.  And as I got older, I still wouldn’t need any help because it would have become a habit.

In the end, being forever flawless will rob us of the greatest joy in life.

We won’t need help and we won’t be able to help others.