On Aging
By nevis
- 455 reads
It's probably more difficult to age gracefully in this day and age I
think. Once upon a time, age was synonymous with wisdom. A logical
assumption since wisdom comes with life experience and years of
observation. How often have we wondered what we would have done
differently had we known then, what we know now? Alas, wisdom is no
longer prized by youth. Some will seek knowledge and believe that
wisdom automatically accompanies it while abandoning the usual thought
processes that should accompany knowledge.
Today we are inundated with all forms of media heralding the youthful
face, figure, hair and how to keep it that way as well as how to get it
back. Wrinkle creams for the face and body. Scents that send some into
flowery fields and others into sneezing attacks, weight loss products
to ingest, bend your body into impossible positions, or clip on your
ears. Hair colors to get rid of gray along with other "youthful"
products that offer the promise of turning back the clock with hormones
and herbs. Sacrifices to the Goddess of youth and the svelte.
The ancients were aware of the life cycles found in nature. Gods and
Goddess deities were the role models. Waif like models and Hollywood,
who view man as a viral Adonis and woman as a never aging Venus are the
Gods and Goddess of today. At one time, women and age were respected
and honored. Now, age is a reminder to the youth that they too will age
and is regarded with scorn and fear. The first two decades of life,
aging is never a concern. Only after one has entered the third decade
does the concept of aging becomes a concern. Men start counting the
hair found abandoned in the sink or on a pillow and check to see if the
feet still can be seen while standing. Women worry about the softness
of the skin, clothing styles and the biological clock.
Aging. No one actually thinks much of this issue when one is in the
unadulterated blush of youth.
At fifteen, we see thirty as old, at thirty, we realize we are aging
and start counting the years until fifty. At fifty, one wakes in shock
and asks, "where did the time go" and start thinking about what we have
to show for all our years of effort and counting the time we have left.
High School reunions become less apparent, one rarely is called upon to
be a bride's maid, and we start becoming annoyed at the manner-less
youth of today.
Although depressing at first fifty is a great age if one is to consider
the alternative.. Indeed, it can be liberating to an extent. We no
longer dress for other people as we do for comfort. We lose our
self-conscience attitude in dressing like everyone else as we may have
done while in high school. We no longer feel the need to impress
people. In most cases, we are settled in our careers, looking at
retirement or off on some adventure. We tend to speak our minds rather
than censoring our mouths and we start concentrating on ourselves,
rather than our children.
Fifty is the age of exploration, not regrets. Regret is a useless
emotion in that one can rarely do anything about the past. Fifty is an
opportunity to explore creative outlets we never seemed to have had
time for. Many go into new careers or open that business we've put off,
pay the last payment on a thirty-year mortgage and perhaps start
exploring alternative life-styles such as joining a Yoga class or
learning how to meditate. There is more time to do the things we wanted
to do in our youth, but were prevented because of the frenetic pace of
growing up, marriage, children and careers.
We should view fifty as an opportunity to explore ourselves, to reach
deep into ourselves and find out who we really are. Introspection is
often utilized at this age, having so little time for it in our youth.
We clean house, dust off our egos and let go of thoughts and ideas that
are no longer useful. It still sucks, but it is liberating.
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