I can be extremely sentimental over stuff. Stuff here is defined as a flotsam and jetsam of paper, artifacts, souvenirs, found objects, notes, etc.
My method of dealing with the paper is to put it in sheet protectors in binders. This way it’s at least in a form that can be easily admired, re-read, and reminisced over. It’s better than a box. BUT – I’m up to four regular binders and two solely for Girl Scout stuff. I’m working on filling a binder of the first year of retirement and then there’s another binder in which I’m gathering more found stuff.
I’m sentimental about certain articles of clothing. There’s a Lands End jacket in the back of my closet which I can’t possibly zip closed or even wear open in a dignified manner. It has a beautiful soft plaid lining but it’s best feature is the soft forest-green Teflon-coated outer fabric. I love this coat because it was my go-to Girl Scout coat for so many camping trips, both with the family and with Girl Scouts. If I look thru my camping photos – there’s that coat. How can I give up my old friend? When I think about giving it away I think of Colline in La Boheme, singing goodbye to his coat which he is selling to buy medicine for Mimi. I saw Samuel Ramey in that part on a PBS broadcast of Live from the Met. Ramey is an incredible bass with such acting ability that I cried at this part of the production. Heckuva thing – he’s saying goodbye to his coat and I’m crying.
So all this is preamble to the main reason for this post: I went through my collection of eye makeup and lipsticks which I haven’t worn in years (20?) and tossed all of it. Well almost all of it.
But before it went in the trash I looked at them and reminisced. Pretty sure I buy things not just because the color suits me but because of the name: Morningbird Mauve. Cherries in the Snow. Drumbeat Red. Rose Diable. Paradise Plum. All-Day Starlit Pink. Nutmeg. Fuchsia Forward. Amethyst Sea. Misty Lilac. Blue Moon. Alabaster and Onyx. Cosmic Copper. Graffiti Splatter – Bronze / Marine Aurore Chicoree. Moonlit Jewels. Desert Sky. Purple Sage. sigh
All of these held promise for an imaginary exotic me who never existed except in my own mind. I’m just not the makeup-wearing type. I did make the effort when I managed my own business and later on in partnership as a graphics design executive. But after the age of fifty, it just seemed too much trouble except for a really dressed-up state occasion. After sixty, it was way too much trouble except for my daughter’s wedding. With age, eyelids start to develop folds so that even if you applied eye makeup, it wouldn’t be visible anyway.
Lipstick just seems too much trying for a long-lost youth and frankly can look clownish on ladies of a certain age.
My favorite brands were L’Oreal and Estee Lauder but there’s a smattering of Revlon also. Revlon developed a series of cases in which you could pop in replacement colors. That was fun – just plug in a new bronze, cream, taupe, or blue color and voila – new look, new you. I have kept four Estee Lauder lipsticks because they were just too all-purpose and you never know – I might do something exotic which requires more than an I-don’t-care look. I kept a Revlon case of brown and cream. But everything else went in the trash.
Well not the Drumbeat Red. That just looked too useful. I might need it to write revolutionary slogans on a bathroom wall.
You never know.
November 2019
Forced Perspective 