I mentioned on the blog that I have been buying some of my old toys and dolls from my childhood, from eBay. It’s been a fascinating experience, that has lead to a few research rabbit holes for me (my specialty – pointless rabbit holes). Anyway, I’ve gleaned a few unexpected lessons from this exercise. First lesson, if you think that we, as the world, have one universal beauty standard, it is interesting to note that the Barbie doll (started in 1959) has had literally 100s of different “face molds” since her inception. Avid collectors have names for each of these “molds”. If you look at some of the old molds, (and the big haired Barbies of the 1980s), you fully understand that our societal ideas of beauty change constantly. So, I say, wear your own “mold” and wear it proudly. It’s your mold and it’s one-of-a-kind and it’s beautiful. Second lesson, no matter how much you try to preserve something, it ages. I have purchased some old dolls which people clearly thought, one day, were going to be worth millions of dollars. (Spoiler alert – they mostly aren’t. In fact, I’m sad to report that I have purchased some decades old dolls, still in their pristine boxes with their original price tags intact, for less than the price that was on their bright orange, Kay-Bee price tag, even the ones that had been marked down on clearance) The crazy thing is, you pull out a decades-old toy or a doll from its original packaging, that has clearly been stored and preserved carefully for decades, out of the sunlight, never removed from its box, and yet, the doll is still old. The doll is still fragile. Her limbs are loose, her hair is crunchy, her face glow has faded, and some of her accessories crumble instantly away, in a poof of dust (note to self – pleather, which has been cleverly remarketed in modern times as “vegan leather” does NOT age well at all).
So in the end, I realize that no matter how hard you try to fight it, you’re aging. We’re all aging. So do we really want to live out our lives, carefully, hidden in a box?? If we do this with the idea that we’ll “age better”, I think that’s a farce. Overall lessons from my current obsessive rabbit hole: Own your unique mold proudly (it has a name), love it, and remember it’s beautiful enough that people would try to hold on to it for ages. Also, life is boring and wasted, sitting in a box. No matter how hard you try to preserve yourself, you’re still aging, whether you like it or not, box or no box. And the final important lesson: Don’t get too attached to your assessories (especially if they’re made of pleather) – they turn to dust, just like we do.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.