Am I the only one who gets bothered by the cheesy slogans that 30 is the new 20, 40 is the new 30 and so on? Seriously it seems that no one wants to get old, instead we all want to stay perpetually stuck in our youth, despite the fact that in many cases (not all) that with age we start to get some wisdom. Grandmas these days don’t want to be called Grammie, Granny or any word that might let folks know they are not so young. In fact Grandmas don’t even look like Grandmas anymore.
Its strange because I look a lot younger than my age but it most certainly is not because I have done anything to achieve that, more a result of my gene pool. This past week when my son (elder boy) was home, I encountered several instances where folks thought he was my husband and while some might find that complimentary, to some degree that bugged me. At first it was cute when folks mistook him for my brother or partner but the incredulous looks when I explained he was my son are starting to wear on me.
I suspect I may be one of the few almost 40 year old women, who doesn’t mind being my age. Its one of the reasons I hesitate to color my hair since the only outward indicator that I am not so young is the gray streak in my hair, it has character and despite my best friend’s insistence that I should color it, I say why? Why fear getting old?
I remember when almost 40 year old women looked old, now they look like they are 25, hello Stacey Dash? Problem is we spend so much time trying not to look our age and retain our youthful appearance that we seem to forget a key point and that is surely as we are born…guess what? We will all be checked out of this place at one point or another. In other words we are all on train ride where the end destination is the same, last stop on the life train is a place called death. Its unavoidable, no one cheats death, it gets the best of us all. Rich, poor, black, white the one destiny we all share is that we will leave this place.
The quest for youth at times is mind boggling, get a touch of botox only a few dollars, hair color, tummy tucks and so on…I’m sorry but its just too much for me.
I miss the ole days when Grandmas wore flowered house dresses and looked like Grannies and did nice simple Grandma shit like bake cookies and play silly games with the grand-kids, I hope that should I be blessed to grow old that I will be that type of Grandma. Nope, Grandma will not be 60 talking about I am still young, I will embrace being an elder, a crone…the last thing I want is to stuck forever in a youthful state. Shit, getting old is the excuse I need to wear whatever I want and believe me….I will. Old folks also get to say whatever is on their mind, fuck niceties, when I am 80, I will be the blunt old lady hopefully of sound mind spitting out truth.
So I say bring on the aging instead of praying for youthful looks, I pray to be of a healthy body and mind and spirit.
