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Fire And Ice

Oct 08, 2019
by Caroline Miller
"How Do You Know When It's Time To Change Your Looks?", "Who the Heck is that Face in the Morror?" . Susan Gregory Thomas, fire & Ice, Joyce Maynard
2 Comments

Courtesy of Rutherford Classics.com

I take my mother to lunch every Friday. At 97 she likes to stroll the mall to see the latest fashions. Passing a cosmetics counter she’ll often say, “I think it’s time to renew myself.” We pause over the glass display until a crisp looking salesgirl comes forward. She offers us samples and mother giggles as each cosmetic is applied. Eventually, I buy her a new blush or lipstick and as we leave the store, it seems to me she leans less heavily upon on her walker… her steps more assured.

 I sometimes wonder what so delights her each time she renews herself with a lipstick called stormy pink or fire & Ice. She isn’t hoping to attract a man. The ritual has to do with personal pride, I suspect. Looking good makes her feel good and when she feels good the world seems to treat her well. Susan Gregory Thomas would agree. In her article, “How Do You Know When It’s Time To Change Your Looks? ”she writes about studies that prove attractive, well-groomed people are treated more courteously and considered smarter than their less-well-put-together-counterparts.” (More, October 2012 pg. 118.) .

 A tube of fire & ice will do nothing for mother’s frown lines, of course. What she gets is a mental rather than a facial up lift. Yet each time she goes through her period of renewal, I am reminded that hers is a feminine quest. A woman looking into a mirror and noticing her jaw line softened by jowls is inclined to wonder, is it time for Botox or the surgeon’s knife?

 Are women more vain than men? I doubt it. But as another writer, Joyce Maynard, observes, “Women are reminded at every turn that our looks are tremendously important.” (“Who the Heck is that Face in the Mirror?” by Joyce Maynard, More, 10/13, pg. 160) Why then, as she suggests, do we allow our acquaintances and our society to make jokes about our attempts to feel good? These jokes, she points out, are another way of putting women down.

 Being too curious to see how my past will be etched upon my present face, I’ve done nothing as yet to alter it; but I don’t rule out the possibility. I applaud that spark of renewal that animates our gender. What is life, after all, without a little fire and ice?

(First published on 11/15/15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 Comments
  1. Sydney Stevens October 8, 2019 at 11:33 am Reply
    I LOVE this blog, Caroline! I've sent the link to several of my women friends and relatives with whom I've had recent "uplifting" discussions! Thanks, as always, for making our (sometimes) mundane discussions seem more worthwhile. Sydney
    • Caroline Miller October 8, 2019 at 12:24 pm Reply
      Thank you for your comment. To bring things up to date, mom is 103 now. We have tea and cake every Friday at her retirement home and before the aids take her down, I swab some fire and ice lipstick on her lips before handing her a mirror. She always smiles and looks pleased. As for me, I've resisted medical upgrades, choosing to stay as nature intended. With a swab of lipstick, I, too, can look into the mirror and smile. After all, my eyes are growing dim.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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