Vanity and the Worship of Youth

And then vanity. Vanity, according to the people of this science, is when one sees the gift but does not see the giver of gifts. In other words, one can see that one is beautiful. For a woman or a man who has been given physical beauty, they see the beauty, but they forget who gave it to them. It is always interesting: somebody says, oh, you are so beautiful — thank you! As if the person had anything to do with it. Unless they paid a plastic surgeon a lot of money, and then they might — though nobody has been seen to look good like that; it is always these stretched-back faces. It is very sad that this has been done to women particularly, but even now men are falling into that. But women — it is just very sad, just the inability to age, what was traditionally called ageing gracefully. There is a beauty in age; it is not ugly. And it is noticeable that in people who accept their age, it is beautiful; and in people who do not, one can see it. There is something — one can see a type of darkness there, just as a result of their fears and their own insecurities.

And then we live in a country whose oldest tradition, according to Oscar Wilde, is youth. This is a country that really worships youth. It goes back to our Greek roots as well. But it is certainly also part of the movement of our time: because the Christian tradition was very down on the body, and as the Christian roots are now being uprooted, there is a celebration of the body, and the body is certainly much more attractive in youth than it is in later age. But it is very sad. There is the book about Ophelia — Reviving Ophelia. Tragic. Tragic. These young girls: just tragic, having to have as models, as role models, these anorexic models who suffer to maintain those physiques, and to maintain that. And this is what is being put out as: this is what you have to look like if you are going to be attractive and accepted in this community. Now, very interesting.