“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall….WHO THE HELL IS THAT?”
As we grow older, we either fashion ourselves from our teenage days, our successful financial days, our stay-at-home Covid days or somewhere in between! We either care or we don’t care what we look like and the older we get, it either matters more, matters less or somewhere in between! But, let’s agree, we all have our own style, even if it’s not coming down the red carpet. The Baby Boomer generation created the idea that all fashion is me!
But in the year of Covid, we may feel like we have all aged more than we should have and that seems unfair. But most of the year has been unfair for the losses we have endured. The list of losses are many pages but is it possible that our strengths have risen us to care less for what we once thought very important, to staying healthy, living in sweatpants and no make-up, as the most important?
At age 72, Sophia Lauren was voted the most beautiful woman in the world…The Independent
One of my BFFs recently told me that after she got her second Covid shot, she treated herself to wander through her favorite department store that she hadn’t been in for almost a year. She was in fashion heaven when she passed a mirror and saw a woman behind her that she sort of recognized but couldn’t place and was so surprised her acquaintance was wearing the exact dress she was wearing. Her first thought was, “What are the odds?” She turned around to say “hi” but no one was there! She turned back to the mirror, and suddenly a shock wave attacked her entire being when she realized the person in the mirror was herself! She didn’t recognize herself.
“My one regret in life is that I’m not someone else.” Woody Allen, Director/Screenwriter
When did we become only a past reflection of ourselves? When did those wrinkles appear? Why such dark circles under the eyes when Ambien offers more sleep than ever before? And what are those freckly spots all over? Has anyone else noticed? Or is this aging stuff so gradual, like not noticing how your grandson’s so much taller or his voice deeper because you see him so often, that we don’t even see the growing older changes in ourselves? When it’s one of our kids or grandkids, we don’t say, “Oh, look how they are aging,” no, it’s, “Boy, how they have grown!”
Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen in life…Leon Trotsky, Revolutionary
So why is it when adults hit their 50s, the language changes? Why can’t it just be that we are “maturing” because that’s actually what it is, isn’t it? Oh, come on, help me out here! I hate when someone refers to their age as old and how old they’re getting! Really! Age is a state of mind, remember, WE BABY BOOMERS INVENTED A STATE OF MIND! How else could we describe psychedelic/trippy/mind-bending/altering/expanding surreal experiences? We’ve grown up while living in a state of mind! There is and never will be a more significant generation than Baby Boomers to clarify today’s reality!
Forty is the old age of youth; fifty, the youth of old age…Victor Hugo, Writer
“Old” was our grandparents and great aunts and uncles. Then parents and their peers started to have wisps of gray hair, crow’s feet lining their eyes and then declined to take that after-Thanksgiving-dinner-walk. We all probably silently thought, “I will never look or act like that! No! Not me!” But then the realization that the aging process has not overlooked us, even though we thought it might! It’s a jolt; it’s a life-changing concept that interferes with everyday life. Aging enters most aspects of our lives and we have the choice on how to accept or decline its invitation.
You bend down to pick something up off the floor, then begin wondering what else you could do while you’re down there!…Anonymous
Aches and pains, the eyes, arthritis, G-d forbid major illness, death of a spouse, divorce, jobs/retirement, down-sizing, hate-the-cold-weather, kids moving away, kids moving back home, friendships changing, financial status is not the same, your team keeps loosing, food doesn’t taste the same, they closed your favorite restaurant, and all these electronics! HELP! BRING BACK THE 60s!
By the time we’ve made it, we’ve had it!…Malcolm Forbes, Publisher
Oy, who said, “Too bad youth is wasted on the young?” If we only knew then what we know now. What would you change? Do you have regrets? Can you live with them? Can you rewrite your story with an ending that satisfies your dreams? Oy, such questions to ponder, makes my head spin. Right now I’m going to grab my three clickers and the post-it that has the instructions my grandson wrote out for me so I can watch Schitt’s Creek on Netflix.
Age is a high price to pay for maturity!…Tom Stoppard, Playwright
And yet tomorrow I will finish filling out my Advance Healthcare Directive; I will attend a new book club where I know no one; I will try a new recipe and I will cheer for the Giants even though I am a die-hard Dodger fan!
Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many…Anonymous
Remembering that laughter is the one constant that can change the day, make for happy endorphins, allows the sun to shine brighter, makes the rain sound like music and creates an “all is well in the world.” And G-d only knows, we need more of that! Bring it on!
I said to my husband, “My boobs have gone, my stomach’s gone—say something nice about my legs!” He said, “Blue goes with everything.”… Joan Rivers, Comedian
I am at an age where my back goes out more than I do!…Phyllis Diller, Comedian
My health is good; it’s my age that’s bad…Ray Acuff, Country Music Singer
Question: To what do you attribute your long life? Answer: To the fact that I haven’t died yet!…Sir Malcolm Sargent, Conductor/Composer
I exercise every morning without fail. Up, down. Up down. And then the other eye!…Phyllis Diller, Comedian
What is the secret to your long life? Answer: Keep breathing…Sophie Tucker, Singer/Comedian
In the middle of the nineteenth century, an English poet named Robert Browning wrote: “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.” Clearly this man was a minor poet!…Joan Rivers, Comedian
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist, summed it all up: Live well, learn plenty, love much, laugh often…
I am burdened by my experiences
And displaced because of my decisions
Which forever have altered my journey.
But I am not G-d
And can only let serendipity lead me.
Purim reminds us of the wicked and the fun. We must embrace both to stay human so we can get through the wicked and laugh again.
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