Why do we so often want what is unattainable?

Young kids strive to look and act like adults; older folks try to recapture their youth.

This thought occurred to me after several unrelated conversations recently.

One friend was complaining on the phone about her 11-year-old granddaughter: "She wears too much black makeup around her eyes and bright red lipstick. Her clothing is too short, too low-cut and too tight for someone that age."

An acquaintance was lamenting his 16-year-old daughter's obsession with fashion and beauty magazines. "She wants to be skinny like the models in the magazines and she imitates their hair and makeup. Her body is still growing and she shouldn't be starving herself to look like a model," he said.

On the other hand, a number of older people I know are doing all they can to deny the appearance of aging.

Two male friends dye their hair. Neither looks natural, because both chose stark colors that only accentuate their aging faces.

Several female friends are devoted to Botox, a diluted and purified form of the deadly botulism toxin type A that causes food poisoning.

Injected in small doses, Botox is supposed to erase fine lines around the mouth and forehead.

Unfortunately it also can result in a masklike, expressionless appearance.

One woman I know is incapable of showing any emotion since her Botox treatments. I cannot tell whether she is happy or sad or angry; she always looks exactly the same.

When a friend suggested I join her in getting a collagen injection treatment to plump and fill in facial lines, I laughed.

Heck, I don't even have pierced ears! And I hate injections and won't even submit to an epidural steroid shot that so many people insist would ease my ongoing back and leg pain.

I guess I am pretty old-fashioned when it comes to beauty. I'm with the folks of yesteryear who casually accepted frown lines, laugh lines, wrinkles and crow's feet as a normal part of getting older.

Combatting visible markers of aging will not result in automatic happiness or inner peace. Taking care of oneself from the inside out, however, can.

We have long heard that true beauty comes from within. Then why devote one's life to unreachable goals promoted in major advertising campaigns?

Why not work with what we have, both our physical appearance and talents, and try to make ourselves and the world better. Feeling good radiates from the inside out.

A few very simple measures, such as avoiding sun on our faces and staying hydrated, can hold off many of the premature lines people seem to loathe.

All the moisturizers in the world cannot compete with drinking plain tap water to keep our faces looking good.

Think of a favorite houseplant. If all we did was spritz water on the leaves, moisturizing it from the outside, it would not thrive. It needs systemic (root) moisture, too.

Our faces, too, need more than moisture rubbed on the outside. We need to moisturize our skin from the inside. This is easily and inexpensively accomplished by drinking plenty of water each day.

Many older women might also look younger if they backed off on the heavy makeup. Foundations and thick powders can accent creases, and black liners often define drooping eyelids or crow's feet.

A little makeup can enhance our natural beauty. The secret is to blend whatever products are applied so no definable lines remain. Invest in a bag of cotton balls and use one over the entire face to blend cosmetics every time they are applied.

Realize, of course, that no magic tonics exist to stop the aging process. Life etches our faces and that's a fact.

Instead of fretting, we seniors should be proud to display our earned badges, those little lines that tell the world we have lived a long, full life.

Only an early death can prevent us from getting and looking older. But who in the world wants that?