Working at the Post Office, I’ve sorted a lot of magazines.

I know that I am coming close to my breaking point with all the photoshopping that I’ve seen.

Certainly, we have grown too complacent with the false images of perfection that these magazines convey.

Further, I feel we may have even grown blind to their negative effects.

My question is:

How much airbrushing is too much?

Case in point:

Last month there was a magazine featuring a celebrity and her family.

What a nice looking family you may think…

Not a hair out of place with a lovely array of sparkling faces beaming up at you from the cover photo.

But heck…

Even their DOGS are photoshopped.

Further, I recently saw a magazine cover of a popular singer with her beautiful new baby girl.

I had to do a double take on the baby’s eyes because they were such a deep and unnatural aquamarine blue.

My initial reaction was…

“Really?”

Which quickly denigrated to a…

“Aw, c’mon…

If I were to see such eyes in real life I would consider them scary.

And I’m talking Damien from ‘The Omen’ scary.

This is an image of a made up person.

Fiction.

Not real.

This sets an unobtainable high standard for children, young people and adults who don’t know any better.

Years ago, I went to my local Ancaster County Fair which is held annually in the fall.

There, of course were the obligatory farm animals, jam contests and vendors selling their wares.

Picture this:

At the end of one aisle was a woman selling weight loss supplements.

Of course, this woman was very slender and an exemplary candidate which mirrored her sales pitch.

However, her young and lithe body did not match her face and neck which was beset by premature wrinkles giving her skin an aged, and extremely leathered look.

Now, on the exact opposite end of the very same aisle was a female vendor who was selling skin care products.

She had beautiful, radiant and glowing skin. She was so very lovely with her rose leaf complexion.

However, she was also very, very…

…Round.

No word of a lie.

Over the years, I’ve thought about these two women.

They gave become a valuable reference tool for me.

To me, the lesson is:

YOU CAN’T HAVE IT ALL.

Life is not like that.

Surprisingly enough, this week I saw a copy of a magazine with about half a dozen models on the cover. They all looked very young indeed, however there was something unusual about them.

They looked as if they had no make up on.

The magazine headline read:

“No photoshopping was used in the production of this photograph.”

Could this be the start of something new?

We can only hope.