On saving face -with a facelift

There is an article in the newspaper today about middle-aged men-feeling
pressure to project youthful energy and zeal in the
corporate rat-race world -having expensive and surgically risky
face lifts.
      Some of these men are quite pleased with the result. Now
they got that job,now they feel in with the younger shocks, now
they have a better sex life.
    But you can't lie to LIFE !  A 50 year old is still 50 years
old. Who can be fooled by a facelift anyway ? The flamboyant 70
year old editor of Cosmopolitan, Helen Gurley Brown, obviously
had a face lift. Do you think Playboy magazine is interested in
her ? No chance that a man with a facelift will be judged " the
sexiest middle-aged guy in the world . " No,not even Viagra will
fool them !
    Just about EVERYBODY looks their age. The trick is to look
HEALTHY and have energy the natural way -by taking good care of
yourself. What can be more hilarious than a fat alcoholic with
a facelift ?
      What the worried middle aged corporate man needs is an
uplift -not a facelift. He needs to see new possibilities in
life; he needs to revive his sense of wonder and his curiosity
about the journey that must come to an end.

    When we turn 30 we sense that life has it in for us. At 50
we know that life is now gunning for us. We pay more attention
to the daily casuality list -the newspaper obituary.
     Now we realize that the average life expectancy is just
a statistic, not a divine promise.
     I am at 51 amazed by the number of my friends that never
made it this far. Perhaps it was their fault for checking out
early. But it was not their fault that they were just mortal.
     I particularly remember Ed. He called just a week before
he died of heart attack at age 39: The 90s would be his decade,
he told me. Then he scolded me for " never moving an inch ".