First blog of a new year and definitely a rambling rant.
Maybe it's because 60 doesn't seem old to me anymore and so my perceptions and ideas are changing but isn't there an awful lot of ageist claptrap spoken about anyone over the age of say 50? I have seen 50. It was glorious to reach 50. Old enough to not care what anyone thought of me any longer and to allow what I thought to be said even if during those 50 years lived I had never exactly been diplomatic. Free from expectation, knowing it was not me being objectified by wolf whistling idiots. At 56, 60 is a booming reality for me and my thoughts turn to my Grandparents at that age. They had lived through two world wars and a depression in between and their bodies had known many privations. I believe that generation grew old well before their time to do so because of the times they had lived through.
It's not just the claptrap either, there are still in these supposedly more enlightened times, the most awful stereotypical thoughts and comments that gush from the mouths and keyboards of those who appear not to see that it is only in the blink of an eye that they too will soon be one of those that they scorn so. I suppose around about your late thirties is when you realise full on that it has been twenty (yes 20!!!) years since you left school and in that same space of years you will be approaching retirement and perhaps pension age if it isn't meddled with further. Then suddenly a few more years down the line, 50,60 and even 70 is not old anymore. Hey those perceptions apply to everyone else, not me. Look at me I am still young, relatively wrinkle free, fairly firm of body and sound of mind. Then by the early forty's things have changed again, the body isn't quite so firm, even if you work at it, certain health issues might start to creep in and you are there thinking to yourself, hey was it only x years ago I was still being asked to prove I was over 21?
In the last ten years ageing has proceeded at a fast pace for me. The hair has greyed, the lines have become more wrinkly and my skin amongst other things, is definitely going south. Gravity - what a pain!
These last few years have seen my face age considerably. It shows around the eyes and the mouth but hey, am I so internally insecure that plastic surgery, botox, fillers and implants must be the answer in order to maintain a youthful appearance? No, I am bloody well not. I stand here now and say I am proud of every wrinkle, line and grey hair because they all prove that I HAVE LIVED and am still alive!
Those who leave this mortal coil at a young age stay with us forever as youthful and vibrant because that is how they were and that is how they were when they were taken so cruelly from us. They didn't get the opportunity to grow old either gracefully (or disgracefully as I am trying to do) or to feel the regret of youth passing. No.
The signs of life are those wrinkles, lines, grey hairs, saggy skin and bodies. Those signs say, hey I am alive, I have lived, I have enjoyed, I have done something with my life and thought through more than the vanity of trying to keep some perception of youth that in all honesty probably disappeared at 20 only wasn't realised at the time.
Of course it is not just the older people who are subject to disparaging claptrap. It is anyone who is different in some way but that is for someone else to write about. I feel for the young people now who are subjected to a barrage from media outlets and the internet on conforming to certain looks in a constant way that my generation never was and perhaps it is this that also informs those who blast contempt at anyone with grey hair, wrinkles and saggy skin
So I say to all of those who write such disparaging words about anyone older than them, go and get a good and true life that is not composed of obsessing over appearance but at reflecting upon the inner self and growing, maybe even gaining wisdom and then maybe you too will learn to appreciate the beauty of looking at someone who has truly lived and been allowed to live.
Maybe it's because 60 doesn't seem old to me anymore and so my perceptions and ideas are changing but isn't there an awful lot of ageist claptrap spoken about anyone over the age of say 50? I have seen 50. It was glorious to reach 50. Old enough to not care what anyone thought of me any longer and to allow what I thought to be said even if during those 50 years lived I had never exactly been diplomatic. Free from expectation, knowing it was not me being objectified by wolf whistling idiots. At 56, 60 is a booming reality for me and my thoughts turn to my Grandparents at that age. They had lived through two world wars and a depression in between and their bodies had known many privations. I believe that generation grew old well before their time to do so because of the times they had lived through.
It's not just the claptrap either, there are still in these supposedly more enlightened times, the most awful stereotypical thoughts and comments that gush from the mouths and keyboards of those who appear not to see that it is only in the blink of an eye that they too will soon be one of those that they scorn so. I suppose around about your late thirties is when you realise full on that it has been twenty (yes 20!!!) years since you left school and in that same space of years you will be approaching retirement and perhaps pension age if it isn't meddled with further. Then suddenly a few more years down the line, 50,60 and even 70 is not old anymore. Hey those perceptions apply to everyone else, not me. Look at me I am still young, relatively wrinkle free, fairly firm of body and sound of mind. Then by the early forty's things have changed again, the body isn't quite so firm, even if you work at it, certain health issues might start to creep in and you are there thinking to yourself, hey was it only x years ago I was still being asked to prove I was over 21?
In the last ten years ageing has proceeded at a fast pace for me. The hair has greyed, the lines have become more wrinkly and my skin amongst other things, is definitely going south. Gravity - what a pain!
These last few years have seen my face age considerably. It shows around the eyes and the mouth but hey, am I so internally insecure that plastic surgery, botox, fillers and implants must be the answer in order to maintain a youthful appearance? No, I am bloody well not. I stand here now and say I am proud of every wrinkle, line and grey hair because they all prove that I HAVE LIVED and am still alive!
Those who leave this mortal coil at a young age stay with us forever as youthful and vibrant because that is how they were and that is how they were when they were taken so cruelly from us. They didn't get the opportunity to grow old either gracefully (or disgracefully as I am trying to do) or to feel the regret of youth passing. No.
The signs of life are those wrinkles, lines, grey hairs, saggy skin and bodies. Those signs say, hey I am alive, I have lived, I have enjoyed, I have done something with my life and thought through more than the vanity of trying to keep some perception of youth that in all honesty probably disappeared at 20 only wasn't realised at the time.
Of course it is not just the older people who are subject to disparaging claptrap. It is anyone who is different in some way but that is for someone else to write about. I feel for the young people now who are subjected to a barrage from media outlets and the internet on conforming to certain looks in a constant way that my generation never was and perhaps it is this that also informs those who blast contempt at anyone with grey hair, wrinkles and saggy skin
So I say to all of those who write such disparaging words about anyone older than them, go and get a good and true life that is not composed of obsessing over appearance but at reflecting upon the inner self and growing, maybe even gaining wisdom and then maybe you too will learn to appreciate the beauty of looking at someone who has truly lived and been allowed to live.
