time marches on

I have crow’s feet. Crinkly wrinkles radiating from the outside corners of my eyes.

On Friday, I met with two good friends, for our semi-annual get-together at Panera. We’ve known each other since grade school, and times flies when we get together and catch each other up on our lives. At one point, while we were in the midst of a good laugh, I was surprised to see my two friends had pretty noticeable crow’s feet when they laughed. I smugly breathed a prayer of thanks that I don’t have those yet.

Well, my delusion didn’t last long.

That night, while brushing my teeth, I smiled broadly into the mirror, just to confirm my earlier conclusion. What I saw horrified me. I have crow’s feet. Huge, canyon-like wrinkles that come out of nowhere when I smile. Rats. I guess I never really smile at myself when looking at the mirror.

Jimmy Buffet (of all people) once said that wrinkle will only go where the smiles have been. I guess if wrinkles are a result of smiles, I’ll take smiles over smooth skin.