The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been. ~Madeleine L’Engle

I have a wrinkle that occasionally drives me to distraction. Yes, “A” wrinkle. I have others that cause me no distress. Just this one- it is deep and curvy and really quite prominent on my face.

There are days when I find myself focusing on this wrinkle and touching it and wondering if it LOOKS as gigantic as it FEELS. When I brush my hand against my face, I feel as though I have just dived head-on into the Zambezi River gorge. While I do love rafting the Zambezi, I do not love to have this gorge of a wrinkle being the first thing that someone notices when they look at me.

After going through yet another cursory Internet search of minimally invasive cosmetic procedures, I realize that I don’t want to fake looking young. I don’t really even want people to focus on my youth. I’d rather have people focus on my sparkly personality and/or my obvious genius. Shoot. I just spelled genius wrong. Thank you, spell check.

A middle aged man once told me that our culture (American, I believe) has some screws loose. We look at old buildings- centuries old. We stand in awe of their beauty. We take photos of them and share them with friends and attach notes to the effect of: Look at how gorgeous this 350 year old building is! But we don’t have the same appreciation for the face of an old woman.

We should be more focused on the structural beauty of a person, just as we focus on the structural beauty of a thing. For today, then, I am going to listen to my elders and leave the Zambezi River gorge to bask in its glory and live as a reminder that I smile often.