I Miss My Lips: Or Ode to Nora Ephron -by Jane Everham

Okay, it is likely that many of you will not get the Nora Ephron reference. Nora Ephron authored a book called I feel Bad About My Neck. It was a collection of essays on the things in life that perturbed her. It was funny, really funny! I do not believe most women need more than one purse and her hysterical essay, “Purses,” did not change my mind but had me hooting with laughter.

So, I decided to think about what in daily life perturbs me. For example, coat hangers that insist on tangling, and yes, even plastic coat hangers can tangle; doorknobs that snag anything with a strap – often a purse strap; plastic wrap that resists removal, and finally the disappearance of lips as we age!

Have you noticed? I mean my lips were never Julia Roberts’ lips, but I had lips. Now not so much. They seem to have retreated and flattened out and are nearly invisible. Even lipstick fails to bring them out. I have noticed that this is not just a female catastrophe, but men as they age are losing their lips too. What is a body to do?

Back to my original question, have you noticed that your lips have changed? Some of you must have because there has been a definite uptick in Botox treatments. And personally, IMHO, this is a mistake, stop it. It rarely works well and when it does not work it is so bad, so obvious. Just stop. Smile more because your lips always flatten out naturally when you smile, and folks will not notice the thinning as much. Let’s commit to a cover-up in the Big Lip Loss by agreeing to smile more.

And the moral of the story is (with lipstick, lip gloss, lip liner, lip moisturizer, lip flavor, lip everything starting from $12.99 to OMG) you can spend a small fortune all with the same mostly lame result! Save your dollars. Contribute them to your favorite charity. Why not? And as George Washington once famously said to Alexander Hamilton - Smile more!

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs in the 50's and 60's. I moved to Colorado to attend Denver University and with two exceptions (a year of study abroad in Spain and a year as a flight attendant in Miami), I have lived in Ft. Collins, Colorado with no intentions of ever leaving. After earning an Educational Specialist degree in School Psychology at UNC, I worked for 34 years in the public schools in Cheyenne, Wyoming and Fort Collins, Colorado.

After retirement in 2011, I have been kept out of trouble with active volunteering with the Larimer League of Women Voters, Foothills Unitarian Church, and progressive politics wherever I can find them. I love to have lunch with friends, read voraciously, and travel.