The Price of Vanity

I admit it. At my age I'm finally beginning to show a few wrinkles here and there. So, I succumbed to a TV ad to help me get rid of them.

The ad is Broadspring - Ageless Woman, and the model who gladly spoke for the product was Cheryl Tiegs. She is older than me, and she looks younger than me, so I took the bait.

The product is advertised as a "deep wrinkle relaxer, HydraFusion technology with clinically proven results!"

The literature gave me 30 days from the date of shipment to try the product and decide whether I wanted to keep the product or call the customer service number or email them and they would cancel my membership and issue a RMA number for the return of the balance in the current bottle. After the 30 days they would charge my credit card with the $59.95 after the 30 day trial period.

After trying to call them - and receiving the message that no representatives were available at this time to take my call and then finally, after 8 1/2 minutes on hold, I was hung up on, and sending them the email within the required 30 day time limit, they still charged my credit card $59.95!

So, since I've had no response from them other than to have my credit card charged, they've really given me no other choice but to take it to my blog. This is the first time a manufacturer has not responded to my request to cancel my membership and not offered a return number for the product currently in my possession.

I would suggest you stay away from this product and this company and find another way to get rid of any wrinkles you may have. Believe me, the frustration of dealing with companies who don't perform according to their own words are just not worth dealing with.

Their guarantee is that "You will NEVER be billed and you risk absolutely nothing. That's what Free Trial is all about."

What they don't tell you is that they don't answer the phones and they don't respond to the emails telling them you don't want any more of their product -- all of this within the required 30 day period.

So, once again, when you see Cheryl Tiegs promoting AgelessWoman, unless you're prepared to committing your credit card to the $59.95 after the "FREE TRIAL" is over, don't participate in the offer. Put your money somewhere else.

LOOK A LITTLE DEEPER

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines perspective as, "the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance; to view your own task in a larger framework." Relative importance. What an interesting concept.

Examine the thing -- or things -- that irritates you the most today, and ask yourself this question. One year from now, will it still be so important? Five years from now, ten years from now? Or, even six months from now? How much energy do you spend on something with little relative importance?

Now look at what brings you the most joy and pleasure. This could be relationships, activities, achievements -- the list has many possibilities and is particular to only you. How does it rate on your personal relative importance scale? Do you savor the moments? Do you look beyond the immediate to see the now?

We make choices everyday that define our relative importance scale. What does your scale say about you? When life takes a wrong turn -- as it will inevitably do -- do you desire to make the best of it, or do you moan over "what could have been"?

On a daily basis, we all have the opportunity to make lemonade. Only we decide whether the lemonade will leave a bitter taste in our mouths, or whether we mix in a little of life's sweetness.

Take for example a young comatose woman who was hospitalized in New York. One of the attendants assigned to care for her, took advantage of her helpless state and violated her. He raped her. The end result was not only an unplanned pregnancy, but a pregnancy that involved a mother who would never know the joy of those prenatal kicks, who would never hear her baby's heart beat, whose arms would never hold her precious child.

The parents of the comatose mother had some difficult, and painful decisions to make. Just to name a few -- would the pregnancy greater endanger the fragile life of their daughter? If they allowed the baby to be born, what would become of him or her? Could they possibly love this child?

The most popular option available to them was to destroy the life that was growing in their daughter. Yes, abortion. If there had ever been a case that could draw sympathy from even the most conservative, it would have been this one.

Adoption was a consideration that no one could have found fault with. Better to spare the innocent baby's life, and make the choice to give the baby a chance for a future with a family whose love was not shadowed by the attack.

Raising the child themselves was a choice that would invoke joy and pain. The joy of, course, because they would see their daughter in every facial expression, every mannerism. The memories of their daughter's adolescence would flood back and be a poignant reminder. The pain because their daughter's attacker would also be reflected in their grandchild.

Such choices. In the end, no one could make the decision for them. No one else would live so intimately with the consequences of their choice.

What would you choose? There would be no easy out. There would be no one who could magically reverse your decision if you later regretted your choice.

Now, I am in no way suggesting that your child will walk the same path their daughter did. But I am suggesting that each one of us needs to examine our personal relative importance scales and make every effort to attend to the things that have the exclusive places in our lives and our hearts.

When you next start your day, give thought to your relative importance scale -- your perspective. Will you devote attention to the things that are really important in your life? Will the valued relationships receive the attention and care they need? Or, will you waste time and energy on things that have no enduring importance?

Examine your relative importance scale. Keeping your perspective in line with what is truly significant goes a long way towards decreasing the stress in your life and increasing your joy. We can all benefit from that.