Age--A Very Indelicate Question

The gorgeous Dame Maggie Smith, aging naturally (or seeming to), looks what a woman her age should look. Could I guess her age? No, I couldn't, but her face and hands and neck look natural and lovely. Just as someone who is 30, 40, 50, 60, and so on could not be judged or have their age guessed by what they look like.

Recently I told someone how old I was (they had very impolitely asked my age and no manner of "a lady never tells" deterred them from getting an answer) and they replied in a shocked and horrified fashion, "But you don't look THAT OLD!" At which point I politely reminded them that regardless of how old I looked, one should not judge a book by its cover.

These people who inquire your age and then comment on your looks are the reason women (and men) feel pressured to have all manner or wretched plastic surgery to make themselves "look younger." I will tell you here and now, sometimes plastic surgery can work wonders (a slight eye lift, for example, can aid one with severely drooping eyelids that are hampering daily life) but for the people who go in for the overstretched, overly taut, pulled and pushed to the max, I am here to ask you, do you feel better about yourself? You certainly don't look younger so ostensibly it must make you feel younger, or better somehow, however in the quest to look ever ageless our society has forgotten that age and looks never had a correlation to begin with. Your skin, biologically will change over time, it is a fact, it happens even if you have plastic surgery, but no one can or should correlate what you look like to some predetermined age-range that is set out by your crow's feet or laugh lines.

Also, to that young man who asked me my age and then insulted me to boot--Young man, you may be young, compared to me, but you are certainly old enough to know better. Asking anyone their age is horribly uncouth (unless you are a doctor or some other health profession or insurance adjuster), but should you not realize that, recognize this, some day you will be my age and more and you should hope that you do not run into anyone as rude as yourself when that day comes.