>>>>>some of us are enjoying aging<<<<<
I am not exactly *enjoying* aging ~ I don't think I look attractive with grey hair, so I dye it, and I think I am perimenopausal, and may need hormones. If I put on a striped t-shirt without a bra, I note with some dissatisfaction that one nipple is almost exactly an inch lower than the other. I've got fine lines on the back of my hands. I used to have age spots, too, but after I started taking all the medication I am taking, they faded. And I have to take a lot of medicine, Arava, Celebrex, diuretic and thyroid, which makes me feel like an old lady.
But-but-but!
Yesterday, I took the kids to Tyson's Corner Mall to get haircuts, and of course we had to walk through a department store to get into the mall. I noticed, and this is probably familiar to anyone who reads magazines, it's the same there, that all the posters advertising clothes and makeup use teenagers, nice fresh-faced young girls without an iota of maturity or gravity in their expressions. Teenage girls are what we are all supposed to aspire to look like. Teenage girls are the object of collective lust these days, and perhaps they always were.
And you know what? I don't want to look like a teenager. I don't want to dress like a teenager. I don't want a teenager haircut. I don't want teenager makeup. I'm 46 years old, almost 47, I've been married almost 20 years, I've got two kids, one aged 14, one aged 11, and I don't give a god-damn whether anyone lusts after me or not.
I've gone toe-to-toe with everyone from Justices of the Virginia Supreme Court, to Kurt Schmoke, the Mayor of Baltimore, and it shows on my face. I don't back down. If you need someone to watch your back, you can rely on me. I've assisted in surgery, helped deliver babies, worked in a refinery, and acted as second chair in a five day jury trial. I am no teenager.
So, to the extent that I don't give a damn about a million things that used to worry me, yes, I don't mind maturing. |
