Since living in Germany, I've been noticing that older people don't seem to have "old skin" here. Or, at least, they don't have what I think of as old skin.
Given, I grew up in west Texas and in Florida, so I thought that skin spots (dark or white) and lots of wrinkles was just how white people looked when they got older.
Last year, while living in Orlando, Florida, I didn't have a car, so I took the bus or rode my bike to run errands or go places.
The thing about public transportation is that you really get the chance to look at people. All kinds of people take the bus, for example. People you might not see in your walk of life. People you might not want to see, too.
Once, I remember this man, sitting across form me on the bus. I don't want to be unkind, but his skin didn't look good. He must have been in his 60's and I could tell that he had had light skin like mine when he was younger, but now his skin was kind of leathery. He had lots of big brown circles on his face and some smaller white spots. Not to mention wrinkles, he had those too. Little ones, like cracked, dry dirt in Texas, when it hasn't rained in a while, and big ones. He had blue eyes.
But I had just come back to the US from Europe, so I had a fresh image of what "white" people looked like there.
He looked so old, or like he had skin cancer. If you're from Florida, you know what that looks like.
So, since then, I've been looking more closely at people's skin in Germany and in the sunny states of the US.
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I definitely remember an elderly lady I saw on the street in Cottbus, Germany.
I definitely remember an elderly lady I saw on the street in Cottbus, Germany.
She was hunched over her cane and was moving slowly. While passing her on the sidewalk, I glanced at her before saying, "Excuse me." I was really close to her and noticed her skin. She must have had some eye-lines and the contours of her face looked "older" (looser), but her skin looked as good as mine! Her skin displayed about as much damage, maybe less, as I've had in my whole life. I can't describe it in scientific terms; her skin just looked good. I had never seen an older light skinned person, who didn't have "old skin."
So what is "old skin"?
Having light skin and living in a sunny place is a relatively new phonemenon in the world. So, surrounded by examples of premature aging, do many of us have a warped understanding of what aging looks like (in Florida)? Is living in a sunny place and having light skin dangerous?
Having light skin and living in a sunny place is a relatively new phonemenon in the world. So, surrounded by examples of premature aging, do many of us have a warped understanding of what aging looks like (in Florida)? Is living in a sunny place and having light skin dangerous?
I wonder...
