What price beauty?

Hours pass slowly when one is recuperating.  Sleep has given way to restlessness and being immobile with time on my hands has given me the opportunity to catch up on my reading. While shuffling through my stash of magazines, I came across a short article in the November issue of Smithsonian magazine. Titled "Slaves to Fashion" the column reads "In modern Manhattan, the pursuit of beauty has led some women to surgically shorten their toes and secure them with metal pins to fit more easily into three-inch Jimmy Choo stiletto heels."  Can you fathom that?  Opting to endure foot surgery for the "pleasure" of wearing high heels?  Two words come to mind:  frivolous and ludicrous.  Surely the years I spent "en pointe" in Ballet class and wearing pointy-toed high heels from my early teens onward contributed to the problems I now have with my feet.   I wince when I see young women teetering in their spikes, knowing that down the road, they will be paying a painful price for their folly.  Familiar adages flash through my brain:  live and learn, with age comes wisdom, if only I knew then what I know now.  Having stated on more than one occasion that fashion is my passion, I now draw the line when it comes to pain for the sake of beauty!