Dear LPG, 

Have you ever looked at the internet without having a question that you need the answer to?  If you find yourself on a train or bored while you are waiting for your appointment at the doctors (when you can get one these days), it is interesting when you look around and notice the subtle differences in the activities that the people around you choose to occupy their time?

The table with all the magazines on is quickly dwindling and people who find themselves waiting are more likely to get their mobile phones out when trying to pass the time.  The youngsters will either stream a movie or check their emails but if we older people have one we are more likely to just browse.  

Not wanting to look too out of place, I am more likely to find myself wandering through the webpages and I recently came across one of those ‘what famous people of yesteryear’ look like now, compilations.  This is where my trying to look interested in my mobile left me one day not so long ago and that got me thinking a bit…

Many of the best-looking film stars of our young days are ageing just like we are and doing it reasonably gracefully.  I know that they have most probably been able to have afforded themselves a bit more help with the visual aspects of aging, but they don’t look so bad.  I mention them because the group that I found have faces that we have continued to see as they have aged while I know that there are also the crueller compilations available.

It is all about comparison and I suppose we look at the mirror so often that we don’t notice the changes that have happened to the reflections that look back.  The problem comes when we find an old picture and do the ‘then and now’ comparison, but don’t write yourself off.   I think that when we over 65-year-olds compare our now selves with the younger versions some of us are happy, but many of us are not. 

Can I just mention that the relatively rich and famous spend a lot of their time making sure that the rest of us see them as successful and beautiful, but they have their own problems.  

While reading about them we all do it.  We spend far too much time contemplating that element of greener grass on the other side, while wishing that we had their opportunities.   The feeling always filters in, but I just want to remind all readers that each of us have had our own successes and failures throughout life and we need to leave others out of the picture.  Concentrating more on our own individual achievements must be a more positive way forward…  

GN, Bromley 

GN shares the webpage that sparked her thoughts…

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