Turkey Neck Resignation

While I was on vacation recently, a good friend gave me a copy of Nora Ephron's book I Feel Bad About My Neck which I read on the airplane on the way home. It was hilariously funny and I found myself laughing out loud at Ms. Ephron's ramblings about all the things which trouble middle aged women, the major portion of which have to do with the way we look-- turkey necks, crow's feet, sagging parts that used to be pert, skin that becomes loose and has a propensity to form spots, strange moles and blotches that one never had before, not to mention extra body mass that we are not used to having.  As we get older there is one humiliating physical defeat after another, it seems. For some of us, the mirror was never really the  best of friends, but now has become a taunting bully, at least in our own minds.  That, of course, is the key- in our own minds. The sources for where we got this inner image of what we are supposed to look like are many and we have discussed them exhaustively. We all know the drill by now. It's inner beauty that counts. Be yourself. Let your spirit shine forth. Beauty is as beauty does, is in the eye of the beholder, is only skin deep, and so on and so forth.  We truly believe all this, and most of us know how silly and shallow it is to focus on one's neck given the scope and range of problems in the world today, but some of us still feel bad about our necks. So what do we do with that? (Besides taking pictures with turtlenecks on and doing our best crane imitations?) Well, heck, I don't know.  All I know is, I have become, little by little, accustomed to my turkey neck and whether I like it or not (I don't) it attaches my head to the rest of my body and I definitely want that to continue to be the case, so I live with it. What strange creatures we are. Strange creatures with turkey necks.