Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf

“Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” the vain queen in Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” asks her Magic Mirror.

Don’t we women all wish we had a magic mirror? Apparently I had my magic mirror and didn’t know it. I have a love-hate relationship with mirrors.

Don’t get me wrong. I love mirrors, especially antique and unusual mirrors. In fact, one of the things I kept as memory of my grandmother and my mother, was an old decrepit mirror that hung over my grandmother’s sink as long as I can remember. It hangs now on a wall in my house.

I have a small standing antique mirror that sits on my dresser. I bought it because it was cute. I have a colorful modern mirror hanging on a wall in my upstairs bathroom. I have an old, long ornate antique mirror hanging in my dining room. I like these mirrors to look at. I never look at myself in those mirrors.

It is amazing when I look in a mirror when I am trying on clothes in a department store. In some department stores I look thinner. I think that is planned because when I buy the clothes and put them on at home, and look at the long mirror on my closet door, I have gained many more pounds than the mirror in the dressing room at the department store made me believe.

Last year — July 2013, to be exact — my sewer pipe from my upstairs bathroom let loose on my downstairs bathroom. Everything including walls and plumbing had to be replaced. It took six months to find a plumber who would tackle the job. Hero plumber, are you still out there? You know who you are, and you are still my hero.

It took the handyman in my household a long time to complete the job. You have heard the stories about the people who do things for a career and never seem to get around to those tasks at home? Yup, I have one of those.

Finally in the fall of 2014 my bathroom is one baseboard away from finished as I write this. It will go on in the morning.  I never liked the mirror in my bathroom. It was too high for this short person and no, we couldn’t lower it because it was a medicine cabinet and had a shelf under it. The lights from above were adequate and when I would put my makeup on I thought I looked passable. I didn’t see many wrinkles. The scars were fading, and I was happy with the results.

The mirror went away with the remodel. For a short while I had to make do with one of the other mirrors hanging around my house that I never look into. They weren’t well lit and I thought I still looked pretty good with the make-up.

Those mirrors lied! My new mirror is up. The new lights are up. I can see myself clearly.  The old mirror, like some of the mirrors in the department store, hid my flaws. No wonder people look at me funny. I thought I looked good but it is somewhat like the song lyrics by Jimmy Cliff, I can see clearly now the rain is gone, I can see all the obstacles in my way. Yes, when the steam clears out I can see my wrinkles in 3-D with the new mirror and lights.

I might also add that I have always advocated against plastic surgery on your face for cosmetic purposes.  It is a sad thing when people don’t look like their ancestors anymore without their mom’s nose or dad’s chin. Having said that the new mirror tells me I need an eye lift. When did that big wrinkle of skin droop down over my eye? Maybe I would see better without the droop.

Changing mirrors has been an eye opening experience in my life even with the droop over my eye.  The only thing I can do is look in the mirror and ask, “Mirror, Mirror on the wall who is the wrinkliest of all?” and laugh when it answers, “You with all the crinkles.”

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” — William Shakespeare

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her Facebook page is www.facebook.com/sprinklednotes.