16 nov

I like to study the wrinkles in someone’s face. They reveal a lot about their characters, I think. Someone with a lot of horizontal wrinkles on their forehead is a sceptic. A person with some vertical wrinkles above their nose is a worrier. The combination of the two is also possible. It creates a kind of checkerboard above the eyes. Fascinating character, I think and walk on.
Me myself, I have the wrinkles of someone who smiles a little bit too easily. The psychiatrist in me – I really do think I am a doctor in the deepest of my thoughts. Unlike Julie, who thinks she is a car mechanic. When she hears something funny in the car, she will say: ‘It’s the alternator. I am not sure if she knows what an alternator is (I don’t) or what it does (no clue) but it is reassuring to hear that the problem has a name. Especially because Julie will have the authoritative voice of her dad when she is in her car mechanic mood. Come to think of it, Julie is also a meteorologist. With the same dad voice she will claim that ‘those clouds will burn off’ when she has checked the weather first thing in the morning. I am still waiting for the day when she will start coming in after her check up and say: ‘an eighth of an inch of rain last night’. With the dad voice, of course.-
Anyway, the psychiatrist in me is worried of course about this smiling behaviour. Although the wrinkles might also be caused by the sheepish look I get on my face when I look at stupid tv-shows or feel good movies. Julie and Claire will laugh at me when my face gets in this tv mode. Just because of the duration of some movies, and the amount of times I have seen them – let’s say the Sound of Music, but I also have this face with every Woody Allen movie, even the stupid ones – it must leave an impact on my face.
I could write about Julie’s wrinkles, if she had some. Which she doesn’t. Because Julie is perfect. I repeat: perfect. She even walks like an antelope!
I came to think about wrinkles because of the tour guide at Fontfroide. This middle aged man, stark black hair still with a kind of boyish hair coupe, had a fascinating wrinkle from his right eye going circlewise downwards for at least 4 centimetres, almost 2 inches. It was only at his right eye, the left eye had wrinkles, but not this one.
The wrinkle was deep. So deep that, when he would straighten his face for a second, one could see that at the bottom of it, his face would not be tanned. There would suddenly appear a white stripe on an otherwise healthy looking tanned face.
Lying in bed last night I was trying to recreate that wrinkle on my face. It was difficult, but suddenly it dawned upon me that it was caused by his compulsive habit of cleaning his glasses. In the one and a half hour of our tour he at least did this ten times. After another thorough cleaning session, he would hold his glasses upwards to the light and close his right eye in the way that caused this wrinkle.
Now what would this say about his character. He’s surely someone who likes to have a clean look at things. His desk at home is probably spotless and he’s the kind of person who I would happily employ drying my crystal wineglasses, if I would have those.
All this wrinkle information is valuable I think. Even from a corporate governance point of view. There is a lot of discussion about a good mix of qualities in the boards of companies, definitely in those of banks. Most people think that more women on boards would help, which is probably true.
But I think that what should happen is that there is a compulsory mix of wrinkles in a board. Personally I like to see the glass cleaner as a cfo, and the sceptic in charge of remuneration. I do not see a real role for the sheepish laugher though, but there are still seven months to come up with something for him.