Rising again

It's been a long time since I've visited here. The process of metamorphosis can wrestle your attention in different directions. This year, I've moved (or been moved) out of the roles of daughter, mother-with-kids-still-home, and employee.

So I'm shapshifting, and shifting this blog too.

I'll get less fuzzy later. But I'd like to talk about what provoked me to return: none other than the sort of appalling TV series True Beauty. In this Ashton Kucher/Tyra Banks creation, a group of stupendously vain and stupid beautiful people are subjected to various situations that give them ample opportunity to show their lack of "true," aka "inner," beauty. The gimmick is that they don't know they're being judged on kindness and decency as well as flesh tone and attitude.

One of the three judges who most of us recognize is Cheryl Tiegs. Still slender and pretty, if a little stiff, she stands a bit like a deer in headlights most of the time. But it's nice to have a clue about one of the characters.

No excuses for watching the show: let's just call it morbid fascination.

But last night (January 26) provoked my return here. The household of "beautiful" people were sent to pose with Old People. As they were shown their own faces aged by a computer program, they all expressed disgust. And when they saw their older model-partners, they howled with unkind laughter.

Sort of like people at a zoo watching the bonobos.

I'd never realized how shocking it is that there are still some groups people feel free to revile. Fat people, old people, homeless people, crazy people.

Until I became one of those, that is.

The format of the show is that some models, usually the last ones you'd expect, show better behavior than you'd predict. In this case, most were courteous to and became interested in the older people.

But how do we create a culture in which the faces of age don't shock and disgust us?