From Anti-Aging to Immortality
“There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas’s court.
”Jean-Dominique Bauby . The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
After Prague I came back to my new routine in Naples. Everyday, early in the morning I would drink a large glass of a delicious freshly squeezed orange juice, sometimes with tiny clementines picked from the neighbor trees in the hills of the very old residential quarter of Posillipo. The Italian blend of warm strong coffee aroma would wake me up just on time to see at distance from my bed, the orange winter sun rise on the Vesuvius in the large bay of Naples.
Long morning walks to Marechiaro lungomare and back home early for lunch, where the green vegetable of the day would be picked in a small truck owned by a man called Salvatore right behind the old Palazzo where I stayed. His son Enzo a few yards away would have the tomatoes and herbs. Basil is only found in the Summer therefore something else is offered instead depending on the day. Seasons still exists in this corner of the world and globalisation is thought as something bello ( nice) but probably for someone else.
On my way to New York, with a connection to Paris, a friend from Brazil calls me on my cell…” You are kidding? You are in Paris and are not going to see Dr Sebagh?” A little ashamed not to know exactly who is doctor Sebagh I answer with a question ” Should I?”- ” Are you nuts? , He’s the world anti-aging Jewish Guru, I will call myself to set you an appointment right now, you’ll thank me !”
Here I am on a rainy day in Paris entering this very old 1900 iron elevator leading me to the second floor entrance where a very tall and skinny blond woman, dressed in a sport outfit and golden sneakers (certainly a model) speaks Russian on the phone, while leaving the exclusive door office open for me with a quick smile .Her skin is gorgeous white and perfect. A pretty and very long haired assistant dressed in trendy 1960 vintage-look jeans with a warm welcoming smile not exactly directed to me because she is busy telling a client about her interesting weekend, shows me the way to a nice room.
Nobody asks me to fill any paper, or any question at all. I am late but she obviously does not seem to mind at all.The very French and elegant living room is filled with brown old leather Chesterfields couches covered with fake furs, the walls in a Louis XV style Boiserie, Elle and Paris Match magazines on a modern glass table feature the last events of French president Sarkozy recent love entanglement with young supermodel and singer Carla Bruni.
Two French wrinkl-less ladies on their 40s impeccably dressed in Hermes Amazon-es, as they had left their horses at the door with the Doctor’s assistant, talk quietly without any sign of hurry, a young American couple ,also wrinkl-less, writes in great sign of concentration serious stuff certainly overseas on their small Blakberries.
Many hours have passed but Dr Sebagh charming and experienced Savoir-Faire, in his questions, and techniques of applying Botox and Restylane on my skin without making me feel any pain or doubt, overwhelm-es me. He then goes to the Internet and explains that I can buy his product line in New York right in front of my house, and can come to see him in a year if I wish to.
Younger in looks I arrive on a very cold January week-end in New York City. The light is dull. I am in a car among taxi cabs, I feel strange, I decide to isolate myself for a while until I figure out the jet lag, the fade light, the temperature and the difference in my Bio-rhythm altogether.
I realize I am a result of my own global freedom and still feel unhappily trapped by it . What do I need more? The traits in my face look more relaxed than ever, my skin feels as the skin of a baby, but an empty space locked within my self still reacts against an external and momentarily unrecognized environment that I sometimes I even call home. I am probably still a powerless human. I decide to go to the movies by myself for a small change, and watch the new Julian Schnabel” Diving bell and the Butterfly” playing on a Third avenue cinema near my house.
Jean-Dominique Bauby was the victim of a stroke that left his mind and one eye functioning . He gradually ‘’surfaced” into a new existence as a victim of ”locked-in syndrome“, mentally alert but deprived of movement and speech. This was enough to enable him to dictate ” The Diving Suit and the Butterfly” to Claude Mendibil before dying of heart failure. He achieved it by moving his left eyelid in response to an alphabet rearranged according to the letters frequency of use.
The The diving bell of Bauby’s title is his corporeal trap, the butterfly his imagination; the author cultivates strong feelings, especially anger, to keep his spirit from atrophying along with his limbs. On my way out I buy his book from Berck-sur-Mer. While reading it at candlelight I realize it is best experienced by remaining mindful of having the luck to be reading it between the many blinks of one’s eyes.
Reading Bauby’s words during this uncomfortable landing in the city made me understand astonished and finally humbled, that the refusal of one spirit to accept death as an end is what’s necessary . It’s the conviction of a transformation process into a new beginning, a rebirth, aiming at life more than ever in the fullness of its present moment and in the part of the self that resides in the creative mind.
I also realized that I have the potential of being anywhere I want to be, without really having to move from where I am at the present moment as long as I ma present. Most important of all, is the forgotten appreciation of what I always find waiting for me, untouched, every time I come back.
I always come back to the wisdom of Kabbalah dealing with the inevitability of one’s immortal experience and the all night connection to the harvest and eternal life through the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
My feelings of confinement is gone.. My hands are quicky typing on my Mac many stories about my last trips in Prague, In Naples, In Rio. Many people would like to share the experiences. Here I am.
Ah… By the way, I heard Barney’s is having a promotion on that Sebagh’s “For your eyes only ” cream on Monday. I will check it out,it’s right off the corner from home!
This post is dedicated to my good friend Ana Abdul from Brazil whose professional and personal dedication to style, a youth and excellence is time-less and unique. May this post be for her an ode to life!
Joelle’s Picks:
The ‘ Guru ‘ Doctor :Dr SebaghHead Office : Cosmetic Doctor At Work Ltd25 Wimpole StreetLondonW1G 8GL
Tel : +44 (0)20 7637 054 / Fax :+44 (0)20 7637 5110
Paris Office:64, rue de Longchamps 75116 Paris / Tel 01 47 04 65 75 / Fax 01 45 53 45 18
The Skin Products:
” First Experience Kit 6 Trial Sizes by Dr. Sebagh” A good and economic suggestion to try all the line at once as a starter. Absolutely amazing and revolutionary having enzymes and pure vitamin C instant powder over your skin, It’s like having a fresh squeezed organic orange juice through your cells Try it. You’ll love it. I have included a link where you can buy it on line below .Please give me your feed-backs.
Botox in Usa: www. mybotoxsecret.com / dr Hedaya
Ocean County Office - One Route 70 Lakewood, NJ. 08701
Ph: 732-901-6111 Fx: 732-905-0611
The Movie: Diving bell and the Butterfly
