A midlife woman, you have read that right, who really ought to have moved as far away from the debilitating condition known as vanity given her age (50s), told me that she doesn’t like wearing a mask because it ‘smudges my lipstick‘. Stupidity is something that I find hard to tolerate but a hyper level of stupidity that is off the scale makes me want to resort to violence.
Given that the UK’s rate of virus is averaging in the high 40,000s a day and touching 50K, the necessity of mask wearing having been extolled over a million times, a concern over make-up seems trivial at the very least and an act of self-combustion at the other end of the scale.
The World Health Organization has endlessly warned that mask wearing is individual responsibility against contracting the Covid virus.
How does one reach a stage in life where vacuity is still transcendent in one’s priorities? I was once guilty of the same. I obsessed over lipstick when I was in my 20s. I wouldn’t even pop out to dump the bin bags without lipstick applied. In my defence, I was 20 something in the 1990s when the big name cosmetic companies were pumping out lipstick after lipstick in different colours. How to resist? I didn’t.
The thought of voluntarily smudging my lipstick would have been an appalling thought but there was no pandemic raging then.
Thirty years later and a pandemic is raging. It doesn’t care how you look lipstick or not. A mask will help though. So forget vanity and help yourself live longer. But most important of all, evaluate your values and ensure that these are aligned with priorities in life in your midlife. And If looking good at any cost is a priority then heaven help you.
P/S – watch this and you will realise that lipstick and mask wearing is a real issue.
