Carrie Pepper

Archive for April, 2010

Last night, a group of us gathered in a small VFW Hall in Ione, California.  It’s been sitting there on that street for many years and has seen all types of get-togethers.  Those who came last night came because they want to change their life’s circumstances – either with regard to financial freedom or time freedom.  Or both. 

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There he lay in the gutter, the one duck that stood taller than all the rest.  Literally.  He must have been a different breed or mix because he surely wasn’t an ordinary duck.  The majority – mallards and your typical white ducks – were gathered on the sidewalk, preening, eating corn, while he lay there cold in the gutter.  Not the smartest thing to build a duck pond near a busy road.  As I marched along on my morning walk, all joy went out of me when I saw him there, his neck unnaturally bent back.  Oh, yes, the city will come and take him away as they always do, but this duck was getting a proper burial.  I stood and looked down at him for a bit, thinking how quickly life can get snatched from any of us – just weeks ago he was stretching his long neck, looking prettier than most, paddling his orange feet along in cool muddy water, drifting with the others like bobbing marshmallows on a cup of cocoa.  One brief mistake and now, he lies here at my feet, silent and cold.

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What causes our skin to sag and droop as we grow older?  There are many factors that cause aging.  Our skin is made up of both collagen and elastin.  Collagen fibers act as our skin’s structural mechanism.  They don’t stretch.  It is the elastin fibers that give our skin its “snap-back” quality.  Think of a rubber band that is new vs. one that has been stretched out.  That’s what happens to us as we age.  When we’re young, we have plenty of this “retraction” factor, but as age creeps up on us, the levels begin to decrease.

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Still half asleep this morning, I heard the question that’s inevitable while attending networking events, “So, what do you do?”  The first words that formed in my mind were, “I work with anti-aging technology,” but once again, it felt unnatural.  But why did it feel that way?  I do work with anti-aging technology – and it is truly amazing.  But, that isn’t the reason I am doing it. 

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When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.
  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

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