Hillary Clinton IS a real woman

My 49th birthday had just recently passed, and I looked - really looked - at myself harder than I have in a long time. I wondered what a little nip and tuck could do for my appearance. 

The next day Paul Begala, a CNN contributor, had the perfect comeback to a CPAC audience member who suggested Hillary Clinton get "a facelift". He quipped, "No, not get a facelift. She's not a Republican society lady, she's a real woman." This led me to reflect on my own musings about plastic surgery. I have decided that, like Hillary, I have earned every wrinkle and sag of my skin, every ache in my joints. I, too, am a real woman. 

Those little lines around my mouth? Some are from frowning when one of my children was hurt. Some are from pursing my lips when I was old enough to know when to keep my mouth shut. But most of the wrinkles are from smiling. Smiling with pride when my children first walked, first talked; when they brought me dandelions and other "flowers." Smiling when they started school and graduated school. 

The ache in my hip joints? That is from joyfully jumping from the barn loft into hay as a child; marching and running in the Marine Corps; carrying my children, first in my belly, then on my hip. They ache from a life of work, and a life of play. 

Author as a Marine

The age spots on my skin? Some come from the hours I rode horseback as a young girl. Some are from working outdoors in the hot North Carolina sun; some are from lying on the beach watching my children splash in the surf. Some are from sitting on my deck and enjoying the beauty of nature around me. Every age spot is a different memory. 

Hillary may have earned her wrinkles in different ways - Lord knows I'm sure Bill gave her many - but she wears them well, and she wears them proudly. We all should be accepting of the body that time, and life, has given us. Let us be real women, not plastic society women grasping at a lost youth.