Dear LPG,

While I accept that we are each a whole lot more than the way we look, as I take personality and character into consideration, I want to talk to those older people who avoid having their pictures taken or always hide at the back when it is family photo time. I suspect that includes quite a few pensioners out there in LPG land in this day and age when self-image is so important to so many of us.

I don’t think that anyone gets up one morning and discovers that they look old, and I suspect that many of us have spent a lifetime trying to do the best with the raw material that God gave us to work with visually. 

While I accept that we are each a whole lot more than the way we look, so many of us have spent all but the first thirty years of our lifetime getting up each morning and dedicating at least the first half hour of each day to doing our best to make sure that we look as good as we can before we leave the house.    Let us not forget the time that we spent toning that body of ours with those aerobic, running, sport-playing and gym sessions which are good for our mental and physical health, but that help improve the visuals. 

Fashions have changed but the principle has not.  Many gentlemen have always worked hard at looking ‘ripped’ and toned while we women do our best to have the right foundation to hang all those stunning outfits on.  The initial reason is to ensure that we are ready to impress, when Mr or Mrs right comes along, but we often stick at it long after we have sprung that trap.

As we get nearer to our fifties and sixties, it takes longer because the basic frame that we have to work with begins to bulge and sag a bit here and there. But then the day finally comes when some of us give up to some extent.

I wonder if any other pensioners identify with me on this particular subject? I am a lady of a certain age and when I look in the mirror these days I am not always happy with the me that I find reflected. I have to admit that I have always wished that I had better visual ammunition to start with, but during one of my lockdown cupboard-tidying sessions I found a bag of really old pictures and, when I took a really good look at the much younger version of me that features in many of them, I realised that I was much better looking than I ever thought I was at the time.

So, while there is no need to overdo it, keep taking pictures of yourself every now and then because, if what I have written about myself applies to you, there is something that you need to take on board before you start to put the present ‘you’ down.  

The situation is never going to change, so remember that those pictures will be so important to your great, great-grandchildren and beyond, and in a few years’ time when you look at the pictures you took today, you are going to look better than you think you do now.

HW, Catford.

LPG offers a little information about National Self Confidence Day…

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