Every wrinkle tells a story. Each story seemingly multiplies more wrinkles. The facial line acts as a weighing scale, measuring each moral compass, together with the gravitational pull that drops a mark of how we reconcile the hurt, escape the drama and accept the sentence. That one wrinkle betrays a compelling slice of the person.
Beauty, skin deep, illuminates with piercing eyes, combined with beauty pageant smile beams great dental work and pretend emotion. Beauty, soul deep, demands resilience emerging from loss, breakdowns, disappointments, that radiates from the empathetic pupils. That smile comes from acceptance with no blame; risen from the depth of despair to one of hope.
Unfortunately, we are conditioned to despise wrinkles for it reminds us that the aging process has begun. The skin dries, the elasticity drops and the wrinkle spread and increases through time and our pressured lifestyle, resulting in stress, confirms that the narrowing of life’s corridor is fast approaching. Whoever set the standard that there are “no wrinkles in beauty” and whoever claims that “cosmetic surgery tightness – the botox face with plumping lips” gets the penultimate prize, the claim of beauty is so skin deep as is the admirer of its emptiness.
Seoul has become the plastic surgery capital of the world. Imagine the disappointment of each generation of South Koreans born from parental engineered looks, yet produce the definitive Kim Jong Ung replica. Shock horror, nothing like their pointed nose mommy or their high cheekbone daddy or even capturing the pristine Caucasian tone. Travelers from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines seem to head north, especially those investing in the celluloid world, even those moving towards their third decade, or those having to start anew from breakups and divorces.
Cosmetic surgery known as face-lift is now holding second to a higher discovery. It is in preserving human life for 120 Birthdays in using the latest discovery of Stem Cells.
Let’s tell it like it is :
While some decapitate babies, die for strips of the promised land - others pursue the extension of life to 120 years. Such Bi-Pola extremes should be the study of human psychology of greed and destruction that all religions have taught and miserably failed.
The discovery of Mesenchymal Stem Cells has changed everything. An embryonic tissue that develops connective and skeletal tissues, to correct and re-define failed organs to top-functioning conditions. Equipped for future malfunctioning, these stem cells can also be kept frozen until needed.
If this is true, be it at my 40th birthday party, the thought of 80 more years in front would drown me in despair. How many more round the world trips, climb the highest, dive the deepest, and suddenly the vows “to love the one and only till death do us part…” ridiculous in its new reality. This Mesenchymal Stem Cell would change all our primary values.
The old way of transplantation always had donor shortage problem. Stem cell’s bio-longevity is by constructing spare human organs from bone marrow for future transplantations. Magic happens by extracting hematopoietic stem cells from blood samples. At present Singapore’s laboratory together with Thailand’s talent are making history. Stem cells’ wide range of possibilities can be frozen to be used when organs fail, for instance the blind patient can have their own corneal tissue through stem cells replaced without the fear of rejection. As usual in this unequal world only those with unlimited funds could even ponder the idea.
The list is endless on stem cell life resurrection: osteoarthritis, cancer using NK cells, rare blood type available through bone marrow, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer, diabetes, it goes on and on, too much to contemplate.
My creative imagination runs wild fantasizing such impossibilities become possible:
The first 40 yrs as a woman – secure the position of producing the required children, the second 40 yrs as a man, feel the balls between your legs and the kill in your soul. The last 40 years, using duality of both in improving or engineering new ideas on achieving more life skills.
Then the fantasy ends.
What species will we evolve to become? I bow my head to those truly invested in making this happen but living longer changes values, ideologies, family values, marriage, population decrease…..the list is just an endless renewal of the same with confusion predominant.
To this conclusion I think I will volunteer as part of the human trials of space travels, Earth life will consist of hapless humans, might as well find the real Aliens.
Join me.