Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.
As someone with a gleaming crown of white/grey/blonde hair, this resonates with me. I recall when I had a troublesome teenager and a rambunctious toddler, and first recognized lighter coming in, from my otherwise dishwater blonde hair. I genuinely believed I worked hard surviving my kids, and the ‘mature blonde’ was proof that I was living through it. War wounds of a mother.
Then, as now, it’s so anti-cultural though, isn’t it? Cover your grey, tonics for thinning hair, botox your wrinkles. Age comes with changes in the body, and to have those changes means we’re still alive.
Now my few sparkly mature blonde hairs are not few; the dishwater blonde hairs are, and I’m ok with that. After all, this issue isn’t about hair or wrinkles. It’s about our society’s obsession with youth and perfection. Just recently, I’ve noticed models that aren’t exhibiting signs of disordered eating. I refuse to call the models ‘plus size’, as that implies they’re bigger than the standard. To be clear, that size standard is warped. I’ve just begin to see older models, but even those meet some cultural standard of beauty and youth – grey hair on a thin, smooth body.
What about just celebrating everyone exactly as they are? With crowns of glory, or wrinkly skin, or a paunch, or thighs that actually touch when they stand up. What if we all celebrated ourselves, just as we are? Stopped dying, covering, injecting, dieting, just so we looked better. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t watch what we eat for health reasons. Or that we shouldn’t moisturize our skin because it feels good.
Every one I know is not the standard. They’re larger, greyer, older, wrinklier, lumpier. And nearly everyone I know (me included) strives to be closer to the standard in some way. But what if we stopped trying to fit the mold, but instead recognized that we are all made in God’s image, and where we are today is precisely where we are supposed to be, bulges and all.
I can wear my white/blonde/grey crown of glory with pride. That does not make me exempt from striving to conform to society’s norms in other ways. I have lived a glorious life. Anyone alive today has lived a glorious life, and God is exceedingly happy with us all, just as we are. We should stop striving to confirm to something we’re not, and celebrate who we are.
Here ends my rant.
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