Sex and the 60 - Of Beauty and Invisibility

Some of you who have seen me lately know that I have been asking this one question over and over again to whoever appears to be listening:

If you are in a place with beautiful people do you become beautiful? And conversely, when you are in a place with ugly people, are you ugly too?

If you are from the New York metropolitan area, take a walk around midtown Manhattan and look at the people. They are all like Sex and the City come to life. Everyone, old and young, looks stunning. Then take a trip down to the area around City Hall in Manhattan and look at those people. Are they a different species? Where did they come from – these lumpy-faced, slovenly, ill-coordinated, sorry specimens? How could it be that we have all ascended from the same apes? How can it be? Even if you don’t live in New York I’ll bet you can find the extremes in neighborhoods in your community. I suspect there is some “Planet of the Beautiful People” zone in your town and one – well, shall we say Ugly Planet?! Take a look.

So I’ve been thinking – I used to work on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, and I lived in Tribeca – right next to City Hall. So was I beautiful when I got out of the #7 train and walked east on 57th Street and then was I ugly when I walked across City Hall Park to go to South Street Seaport? Could it be that we are chameleon-like and appear as the crowd does? If so, why would anyone want to go south of 49th Street? (Keeping Saks Fifth Avenue in the beautiful zone, of course.)

This winter I reconnected with a colleague from back in my 57th Street & Fifth Avenue days. I always thought she was striking – tall, with a great figure, angular features, amazing blue/grey eyes and a great complexion. I suggested we meet for lunch at the “ladies that lunch” premier destination – the restaurant on the seventh floor of Bergdorf Goodman on 57th & Fifth, of course! When I arrived she was already seated and she looked fantastic! She had let her hair go grey/white, cut it really short and spiky, was wearing purple – a fabulous color for her now. The new hair cut made her features sharper and her eyes gigantic and a more amazing color. In short, she looked Beautiful!

The minute she saw me she exclaimed that I looked fabulous. Now I didn’t dress any differently than I do in New Jersey nor change my hair, or my makeup. I protested but she was adamant proclaiming that my hair was a great color for me; my make-up looked professionally applied (“Did you stop at the make-up counter before you came upstairs?”) and had I lost 20 lbs? In short, she said I looked - Beautiful!

I looked around the room and all around me were the most beautiful people. Each and every one of them were finely dressed, hair impeccably coifed, with flawless features. Everyone was thin, tall and had the whitest teeth. The men – although there were fewer than women – the men, regardless of age, well, they were spectacular. It was like the one time I was in a movie studio cafeteria where everyone was perfect. And now, now that appeared to include me?

I sneaked a peek at the mirror on the wall to my right and what I saw was pure perfection – Me - pure perfection? Well yes, I was beautiful. I was stunned too. I hadn’t looked this good when I shut off the makeup mirror at home hours ago. Perhaps it was true. When you are with beautiful people you too look beautiful. When I brought this up to my lunch companion she said that as a rule she only eats in restaurants where people are beautiful. “You never get a bad meal when you eat among beautiful people; somehow they always gravitate to the best restaurants.” This seemed reasonable too….have you ever had a really fabulous meal at Red Lobster? Have you looked around at the people? I rest my case – she is absolutely right.

So we had a lovely lunch of scallops and arugula salad with cappuccino and tiny biscotti cookies for dessert. We hugged and promised to stay in touch (which we will) and left each beautiful other at the corner.

I walked south down Fifth Avenue checking myself in the store windows whenever I could to see if I still looked unusually beautiful….I did! I stopped by Rockefeller Center and walked around the skating rink. It was there that a beautiful middle-aged man brushed passed me and I heard him sing “…you must have been a beautiful baby…you must have been…” and then he was gone. I smiled. It had been a long, long time since I was whispered to on the street. Ah! I still had it. What a relief!

I stepped up to the windows at Sephora, as they had hundreds of tiny mirrors on display and I studied myself – every tiny facet in each and every one of them. I was glowing and perfect….maybe I was getting more beautiful every day. They say older women get better…so why not? I guess I just didn’t notice it.

As I neared a corner two men in their late 50s were coming toward me. Even though neither of them was attractive, I flipped my hair, knowing that my fabulousness would astonish them and they too would have to acknowledge my newly-realized beauty. They were deep in conversation, although both looked at me at one time or another as we approached each other. I smiled and then BANG, they both smashed into me nearly knocking me to the ground and one stepped on my foot. They appeared stunned, like they had walked into a brick wall.

“Oh, so sorry, are you alright? So sorry, I just didn’t see you,” the short fat one said.

"Yes, really sorry, but you came out of nowhere”, the bald one with the comb-over and red complexion added and they both moved on, already back in conversation, not giving me a second thought.

Huh, what just happened? Had I turned invisible? I rushed over to the nearest store window and what I saw was me, just me, the New Jersey me, the City Hall me, the normal me. What happened? I looked up at the street sign and realized I was on the corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue - totally outside of the Beautiful Zone. Does that answer my question?!

So here’s the thing. If you ever want to meet me in New York City, I only travel in the following grid – south of 71th Street, north of 49th Street, east of Sixth Avenue and west of Third Avenue. Hey, there are plenty of things to do there and besides, we can spend our time looking at ourselves in the store windows. It’s Beautiful!

See you next time!