Aging

I've been following Ronni's posts at Time Goes By HERE about attitudes towards older people and all the euphemisms used by the Press and public to stereotype them. Expressions like elders, senior citizens, pensioners, "you don't look your age", "act your age" - all designed to put people in little boxes.

People are living longer and those who want to look and behave as young as possible have greater expectations of what they are capable of. It's an attitude that drives the cosmetic surgery, beauty, fashion and keep-fit industries, all designed to hold back time......as if.

I left a comment on one of Ronni's posts about not caring about aging, yet owning up to my difficulty in relinquishing mascara. What is that vanity all about? In the nearly 7 years I've lived in Spain, I've pared down my use of make-up. I do use plenty of moisturisers and go days without my darkened lashes, but when a social get-together is on the cards, the full slap goes on. Why I feel better with it, I do not know but come the day I can give it all up, maybe I will truly have accepted my 68, looking at 69 or 70 years.

Let me end with a lovely phrase of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) "As we grow old, the beauty steals inwards".