Beauty

I was brought up with a sort of snobbery that said physical things are for those who can't use their mind.  There was a lot of "joking" about hitting little balls, or walking madly in circles like a hamster.

A common defense mechanism was to go out and over do something, like walk in the hot summer sun until a misstep caused a broken collar bone.

We said beauty came from within, but we all really knew it came from without!  Skin was tanned until it was a soft buttery leather.  Hair was rolled, colored, teased and tortured until it looked like Farmer Dan's straw on a windy day. Feet were crammed into too short pointy shoes until they turned back in on themselves in agony.

Ears were pierced, nails colored, bottoms and waists compressed in sweltering spandex hidden under clothes that required a contortionist to get into.

We snickered at those people in National Geographic.

Sophisticated people rose above the base ways of the past, eating pills to keep their appetites at bay and replacing coarse food with chemicals that mimicked the taste -- sort of-- of their counterparts with more calories.

It was all based on the idea that if I could fool man I could fool mother nature.

Except nature isn't as gullible as man.