A nip here and a tuck there can take years off your appearance. This is becoming the philosophy of more and more people who are trying to beat Father Time. Each year the number of people who turn toward cosmetic surgery increase dramatically. I can’t say whether this is right or wrong, but it does seem to be a shame.

It’s not a bad thing to want to improve one’s looks a little or to try to look a little younger, its human nature. We all want to be as attractive as possible. On the other hand, there are some procedures where the same results could be obtained through a proper diet and exercise.

We can deny it all we want, but the truth is we are becoming a very lazy society. People are reliant on machines and procedures to get simple jobs done. The days of push-ups, sit-ups are being replaced by liposuction and tummy tucks.

It’s hard to fault someone for taking the path of least resistance. At the same time, if a person never strays from that path there is no way they will ever develop any work ethic. This is nothing new. I witnessed it growing up with my own generation. I had always considered myself a fairly hard worker, but not on the scale that existed in the past. This was brought to my attention in a very harsh manner several years ago when I was stacking lumber at a sawmill. I had thought I was making pretty good time when the near 60-year-old owner walked up and let us know a hard day of work like they used to have would kill us all.

At that point he stepped in and worked harder and faster than any human being I have ever seen. This man was three times older than all of us and made us look sickly. Right about then I started to believe him. Hard work was all he had ever known and all he would tolerate. It was no big deal to him. It was just another day in the lumberyard.

This scene made me take a much closer look at the dwindling work ethic of our younger generations. If you ever wonder why you can’t spend 15 minutes in the August sun and your grandparents can stay out all day in the garden there is a simple answer. They probably grew up working hard and never quit.

I’m not telling everyone to go back to the horse and buggy days and live on their wits and the good Earth. The fact is, a lot of cosmetic surgeries are very helpful in medical situations. At the same time, most of the technological leaps that have been made have made the world a far easier place to exist. It is easier to get important items to places they need to go to help more people then we would have ever imagined.

I’m just trying to remind everyone that a little hard work goes a long way. Since my awakening I have tried to work a little harder at everything I do. I don’t shy away from the summer heat when I know something needs to be done and at no point will I ever have a tummy tuck when I could just do some crunches.

Take this advice for what it is worth (probably not very much) and run with it. Try not to become completely reliant on unnecessary items. Remember, there is no reason to pay thousands of dollars to lose weight or tone up when a little sweat and elbow grease can get the same results.

RIck Couch is a staff writer for the Demopolis Times, a sister paper to the Greenville Advocate. He can reached by phone at 334-289-4017.

You can write him at editor@greenvilleadvocate.com or 315 East Jefferson St., Demopolis, AL 36732.