Is the modern mind out of step with the modern pace of ageing? Two recent incidents – one personal and one as glittery as Hollywood’s award season – provoke consideration of such a question.
In the first; a middle-aged acquaintance is alarming friends with his accelerating attempts to youthify. He recently got a little Botox jab to iron out an ageing wrinkle between the eyes. This received many compliments, but then came a touch-up of some crow’s feet that were bothering him. After that was some jaw sculpting, because the temptation to erase the weathering of his features was not reduced by his procedures but encouraged by them. Now he’s had something done to his nose, and his mouth, and added dental veneers. Compliments have been replaced with public silence and private fraught concern.
