If You're Not Whitening You're Yellowing

I don't pay a lot of attention to television commercials but this one really disturbed  me. Have you seen it? The toothpaste commercial that tells you with an undertone of disgust, "if you're not whitening, you're yellowing". Really? Isn't good dental hygiene enough anymore? Whatever happened to brush after meals and use dental floss? Whatever happened to the value inherent in being minty fresh? I guess it's the turning 50 thing or maybe my tolerance level for the ridiculous has been lowered or maybe it's both.

I am of the Catholic persuasion. One of  my favorite parts of Mass is watching all of the different people lining up to receive Communion. The old and the young, the big and the small, the whole gamut. I will be honest with you, I sometimes well up during these precious moments. I well up because I get such a sense of the familial relationship we share. That sense of family isn't necessarily a faith based thing. I have it when I am on Facebook, at work, at my kid's school events even at the local grocery store. We are all in this together, like it or not. Yellow or not!

 Back in December, I  made a momentous decision. I decided to stop coloring my hair. I had my first gray hair in noticeable quantity when I was 16 years old. I have been coloring it for so long  I have no idea what my real hair color was or more importantly, is. In December I decided to find out. My hair grows relatively fast so by Christmas time there was a fairly clear line between the old me and the new  me. It was odd, I felt compelled to tell people what I was doing. I didn't want them to think I had "just let my hair go". The more skunk like I became the more I wanted to have a t-shirt made declaring, "I'm growing my gray out DAMMIT!" Of course this could all be in my head but I could see eyes quickly drifting up to my hair and then back down. Why did I care? Why do I care? Does the color of my hair or my teeth make any difference in who I am? Evidently it must.

I have always struggled with my weight so it's not like I am unused to the judgemental eyes of others, so why the heck does this matter???  This is the question I am currently struggling with. I envision myself as a self assured woman who lives life on her own terms. However, the gray hair has opened up an unexpected opportunity for reflection.  Have I mentioned I am not so good with the reflecting thing? I am more of the "I'm fine" tribe.

So here is my question for you if you would be generous enough to share, "How have you dealt with similar issues in your own life?"