The Genuine Goatess

WARNING: This is a very self-centred entry. If you're not in the mood for something like that, just admire the photo.
When in about 60-odd years I am nothing but a playground for warms and rats and fertilizer for grass growing above me, I'd like to be remembered by those of you who survive me as smiley and happy, in my favourite garb, doing my favourite activity - hiking, just as I am in this photo taken by the new hiker Vance of the Lense. God bless his good eye through which even my abominable arms look acceptable.

No joke, dear visitor: One of the most grossly underestimated side effects of aging is the pain accompanied with looking at the pictures of oneself. Photos differ greatly from mirrors. The latter are very deceptive, believes I. If you dont' like something, you just arrange your face in a different way, or concentrate on the good part of you, or, if all fails, move away from the mirror.

It's different with pictures. They are the most persistent witnesses of your imperfections and your deterioration. Let's be frank. All that talk about "you're only as old as you feel" is just that - talk. You see and feel that you're changing, body and spirit. You just have to accept it and make the best of it, not pretend like you'll be an exception to the laws of aging, as if preserved in formaldehyde. It's the cosmetic/diet/exercise industry that's trying to convince you that by buying this and doing that you can immerse yourself in that fountain of youth and look 30 in your 50's and 60's. Do you really want to look like Joan Rivers? All she look is freaky, not young - and most certainly not good.

Pardon me, I digress. Let's go back to the issue of looking at a photo of yourself: the rest of you might look the best it ever has, but you tend to fixate on that triple chin that somehow came out of nowhere, the splash of age spots on your neck, or (the worst!) your Basset Hound-mated-Brezhnev jaws.

What joy then it is when quite unexpectedly you come across a photograph that totally matches the preferred image of yourself. I've been lucky to have come across such a picture, taken unbenownst to me by a new (hot!) hiker Vance. I ain't no Heidi Klum, but I look healthy, content, relaxed, youthful.... Don't I? Vance, thank god for your Lense.