Sarnia de la Maré FRSA Author, Musician, Artist

  Vanity and Ageing: Why Some People Fight Time and Others Make Peace With It Welcome to Elderescence Academy — reflections on growing older with curiosity, creativity, and calm. Ageing is one of the few experiences that every human being shares, yet the ways people respond to it vary enormously. Some individuals meet the passing of time with determination. They exercise discipline over their appearance, invest in skincare, hair treatments, aesthetic procedures, and sometimes surgery. They aim to preserve a version of themselves that feels familiar — a face, a body, an image that reflects the vitality they still feel within. Others take a very different path. They allow the changes of time to appear openly. Hair turns grey, skin softens, lines deepen, and the body shifts its shape and rhythm. They may care for themselves well, but they do not attempt to resist the visible signs of age. These two responses are often presented as opposites — as if one represents vanity and the other ...

Archive Glossary Strata 1 Renyke Wakes in the Alley (Purpose) Strata 2 The Maybe Line (Friendship) Strata 3 Flex and the Robo-Dog (Making Decisions) Strata 4 The Zoners (Meeting Strangers) Strata 5 The Tiger Queen (Memories) Strata 6 Trouble at the Bank (Animal Instincts) Strata 7 Jarome and the Scritters (Trade and Barter) Strata 8 Shabra (Laws of Attraction) Strata 9 Lust and Loins (Limerence) Strata 10 Dinfant Trouble (Synthetic Love) Strata 11 The Crossroads (Gut Feelings) Strata 12 The Basement People (Emotions) Strata 13 The Fight (Hormones) Strata 14 The Journey to the Edge (Fear of Death) Strata 15 The Ship of Sirens (Superstition) Strata 16 Friendship (Empathy) Strata 17 Swimming (Pleasure and Pain) Strata 18 Freaky Celebrations (Stimulation) Strata 19 Peer Pressure (Existentialism) Strata 20 The Perimeter (Ego) Strata 21 Love and Loss (The Power of Kin) Strata 22 Mother (No Child Left Behind) Strata 23 ...

 From the Elderescence Podcast Beauty After Perfection: Decay, Dignity, and the Digital Gaze Digital culture has trained us to worship the unmarked surface. Smooth skin. Even light. Correct proportions. Endless optimisation. For years, technology promised refinement — better resolution, sharper focus, cleaner edits. The logic was simple: beauty was something to be perfected, preserved, and defended against time. And yet, something curious is happening. As artificial intelligence becomes more capable of rendering faces, bodies, and futures, it has also begun to reveal something we were never meant to see so clearly: what happens after perfection fails . Ageing is no longer hidden behind soft focus. Decay is no longer off-screen. Digital tools now generate wrinkles, sag, opacity, greying — not as metaphor, but as data. And instead of feeling grotesque, it often feels… honest. There is dignity in this honesty. For a long time, decay was treated as an error. A flaw in the sy...