Mid-century modern is the new middle age. Midlife rebranded. Everything old is new again. No. No, don't say that word. Older. Not old. Beth Teitell (@BethTeitell) tackles the pejorative implications of referring to somebody as middle age. Her May 2018 Boston Globe piece, "The new insult: calling someone middle aged...", ponders a less loaded euphemism (epithet?) for our 40-65 gang. One ...
Aging
"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."
— Frank Lloyd Wright
From the birthday-to-birthday yearning of youth to the "I can't believe it's already my 39th birthday" of midlife to the whirling dervish of holidays and birthdays and reunions and anniversaries of older age, aging is our constant companion.
As a child we embrace aging. In middle age we deny aging. And in our senior stretch we, well... I'm not sure yet. Maybe we forget aging? Or maybe we yield and accept and leverage the many merits of aging?
Verdict's still out!
Actually, middle age onward is still a work in progress. This is the time to own aging, to savor aging, to romance each new threshold and each new discovery and each new wrinkle. This is the opportunity to play and provide, create and contribute. This is the time to grapple with my mortality and to find inspiration and strength in the certainty that I will sooner or later shuffle off this mortal coil. This is the time.
"Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength."
—Betty Friedan
"If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest."
— John Glenn
"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
— Samuel Ullman
We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."
— George Bernard Shaw
"We live in a youth-obsessed culture that is constantly trying to tell us that if we are not young, and we’re not glowing, and we’re not hot, that we don’t matter. I refuse to let a system or a culture or a distorted view of reality tell me that I don’t matter. I know that only by owning who and what you are can you start to step into the fullness of life. Every year should be teaching us all something valuable. Whether you get the lesson is really up to you."
— Oprah Winfrey
"There are six myths about old age: 1. That it’s a disease, a disaster. 2. That we are mindless. 3. That we are sexless. 4. That we are useless. 5. That we are powerless. 6. That we are all alike."
— Maggie Kuhn (founder, Gray Panthers movement)
Carpe Midlife & Aging
Click on any of the titles and images below to meander my meditations (and doodles and rants) on aging...
Maturing
"Age is a high price to pay for maturity." — Tom Stoppard Griffin, our Labrador Retriever, will turn ten this spring. Aging. Maturing. Growing a little heavier and little slower and a little less interested in other dogs. Truth be told, Griffin has always been an old soul. Since at least the day we selected him as a pup from his barnyard litter in Lamoille County, Vermont only a couple of months ...
Benign
Dermatology visit. Yes, a poem about body dots! This up-close-and-personal (too personal?!) account is approximately midway through a poem about my first dermatologist appointment. He touches a mole on my neck then dips darting eyes to my chest, to hairy, pigmented spots and rough, pinkish patches. Seborrheic keratosis. Solar lentigo. Normal. No cause for concern. These middle years ...
Ideals & Enthusiasm
As my parents adventure through their seventies I frequently contemplate the differing ways that we age. Some people fixate on the numbers, the statistics, the chronologically worsening odds. Others defy the odds, not so much by fighting age or existing outside of the real world continuum, but by mentally and emotionally transcending the pull of time. My mother is one of the best examples of ...
Little Pot Belly
What little pot belly? Me? Are you kidding?!?! [Suck in gut. Turn sideways. Gaze confidently into mirror.] Nope. No little pot belly. Nothing. Not me! I'm trim. Fit. Svelte. Looking better than my thirties. Little pot belly... whatever! Billy Crystal's Midlife Crunch So you're feeling optimistic. You're advancing on your midlife quest for greater creativity and curiosity (and a healthier, ...
Midlife: Fumbling Forward
"I saw how a man who, unexpectedly, in midlife, had been dumped for someone else, might struggle to keep up his old sense of self, his old optimism. How he might take on an Indiana Jones look, indicative of hopes of adventure, while being careful not to get into anything new that might result in further pain. I saw the polite charm, the detachment, the silk shirt and the expensive restaurant ...