How Could We Ever Be Satisfied ?

Melanie and I had lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant today. We go there so often, they don't bother to ask what we want to drink, they know. They know all of our family and we have watched their children grow up working in the family business. But today, I kept noticing what was playing on the television up in the corner. I hate that people need TV while they eat, but it's a reality and restaurants have to supply what most of the customers want.
Today, commercial after commercial was some sort of product women MUST have to be better. There was one for body lotion to make the skin softer, another to make the woman younger looking with firmer skin, another for hair dye to make your hair look more radiant, then there were several for diet programs, and in that hour we sat there, you would think women from the teen years on, were all falling apart, fat, sagging skin, skin like sandpaper and generally not acceptable as they were. I wondered what this is doing to our real self worth, our real concept of being beautiful just as we are. We speak so much these days about self esteem, being proud of who we are etc, yet we are bombarded minute by minute by ads that make any woman feel that she doesn't measure up in some way or another and we buy into it and run out to get the products.
There were face lift ads, and ads for better bodies attained only at this or that gym. I am a firm believer in living healthy, and taking care of your body but....
And what is this doing to our young ones and our aging ones to see over and over that we are in constant need to fix ourselves up and chase that elusive image of the perfect "10" ?
We worry about how a young girls self image is, yet we as adults, their parents and grandparents are buying millions of dollars for stuff to try and make us feel like we measure up in some way. Surely the young ones notice us doing that.
Maybe we need some help in how we see ourselves for our true value and in doing so stand tall and show by our own self image, then the young ones would know the truth about real beauty by a good example.
I could have easily come away thinking, gosh.. my hair isn't shiny enough, my skin is not like silk, my face is aging, how do I get rid of those age spots, and my goodness, I need a chin lift and somehow there must be some six pack muscles somewhere under my womanly body, oh wait, gravity too has taken its full effect, no doubt I need a body lift. Maybe if I dye my hair perhaps I can try and fool someone I am a few years younger, a "dye and Lie" sort of thing. Oh then there is the commercial that tells me if I don't get diamonds for Valentines day, well then that must mean my man doesn't really value me either. Another whole subject.
Self esteem, worth as a woman as I am, how in the world could I ever feel good enough watching all that stuff on TV or reading a magazine ?

The wrinkles in this puddle make it more interesting, hold more beauty. Perhaps another lesson from nature.