Conscious Choice: Beauty is More Than Skin Deep...I Think

August 2008 | From the Publisher

Beauty is More Than Skin Deep...I Think

How did it get to be August already? Despite being cliché, time really does seem to pass more quickly the older I get. How strange and ironic — though physically impossible — that time should accelerate like that. Thank you, Albert Einstein.

This is just a clever segue into my current thought process: People over 50 are Hot! I haven’t dated anyone under 50 in...well, a very long time.

The reason I am thinking sexy pro-age thoughts is that August is our fashion and beauty issue. Our wise and kind editors create this spectacular issue every year, and a great many people look forward to it. Not me so much. Well, okay, if readers like it, and advertisers find it beneficial, I am all for it. It is just not content that gets me excited. A seasoned date (not the palm fruit variety) who can carry a conversation, has interesting life experiences and has some “laugh lines” — now that gets me excited.

Often in the fashion and beauty world, both inside the LOHAS communities and outside in the less sustainable communities, the focus is on youth and a certain range of body types — in both genders. That must be what appeals to most people, so that is the road most traveled. Not being a consumer of these particular goods and services, I cannot give any expert opinion. I draw conclusions from what I see. Who hasn’t seen the banner ads on nearly every internet page for some kind of new botox alternative? Or, you can buy the product or service touting a “slimmer and younger you?” As a culture, are we really so insecure? Personally, I don’t even want to “feel younger.” I was a mess when I was younger.

Regrettably, understanding fashion and beauty becomes all too easy for me when I employ the “weed theory.” This is my own theory consisting of a single mechanism by which I look at my yard and see the weeds, and only the weeds. I get annoyed and become envious of people who have successful natural prairie landscapes, verdant stretches of unmarred Midwestern habitat. But, I have weeds. Why can’t I have what they have? Ironically, they could be looking out at their yards and seeing only weeds too.

You see how this works? Culturally we become programmed to think what we already have is not good enough. Perhaps we judge others as well. What is not beautiful or fashionable is also not desirable. When we are very young, we want to be older so we can drive a car, go to a bar, enjoy unsupervised dating, etc. At some point, getting older makes some of us want to go the other direction. The cruel irony is we cannot turn back the clock, so it becomes a consumers market. Foiled again!

Here is the good news: Conscious Choice offers a different kind of beauty. If you want a beautiful life, you will find the resources every month in our magazine(s). Whether it is starting or enhancing a yoga, Gyrotonic or Pilates practice, finding a holistic doctor or other healthcare professional, painting your place with non-VOC paints, or reading something you can use about what is happening in the LOHAS community, you will find that and more in these fashionable pages. For that, I am very proud of our team and honored by our readers.

Thank you for picking us up! Have a beautiful day.

— Richard McGinnis, Publisher

P.S. I want to hear from you! Email me.

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