02 November 2007

Blogaversary




A year ago, I started this blog as a way to reach out to others while keeping brain and fingers well exercised. The column below is among the first that appeared, and it seems appropriate today. Enjoy the trip down memory lane.


WHAT IS AGE?

















The calendar tells me that I am 62. There are days when the body agrees. Most of the time as long as I don't go anywhere near a mirror, I think I'm 36. See the picture above taken a quarter of a century ago. It was a wonderful year so I chose to freeze in that state. There is nothing that makes me sense physically, mentally or emotionally that I am beyond that age.

I can tell myself that the hair is grey. I can step on a scale and groan with dismay, but when the mirror and the scale are gone, that picture is me. The only place I feel old is in the reflection of other peoples eyes. They see me as I appear, not as I am.

Rodin did a sculpture, "She who used to be the beautiful Heaulmiere". Robert Heinlein remarked about this sculpture that it takes a genius to look at what is and see the person behind the reality. Heaumiere was always 18. That the facts said that her breasts drooped, that her stomach hung, that her cheeks and jowls were sagging over the bones was unimportant. To herself she was a young and beautiful girl. In the movie "All that Jazz", the central character on his way through a hospital ward stops off in the room of an elderly, semi-conscious woman and gives her a passionate kiss to which she responds in kind and for a few moments you believe that she is young.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm a few years younger than my own children. Fortunately, they have inherited their mother's total disregard for the years. Welcome to joy and experience and adventure ... the future is a wonderful thing to view and I have a lifetime to enjoy it all.

7 comments:

tiptoe said...

Nice comment on life and age!

tt

enigma4ever said...

Well...about The Aging Of the Woman...what you said rings so true..and ever since turning 40, I have pondered this alot. First off that Photo is great you captured yourself in time as a WOMAN...god bless you for that..and Savor that Photo- and if you FEEL that everyday you are that Photo- that is WHO you are....I watched Cocoon the other night- that Movie has some wonderful Statements about AGE and Love and WHO we are, and WHY can't we just be the Spirits and not the Bodies...I love the Scene in the pool...and the other thing that came to mind when I look at your photo is the Annie Lennox song Seventeen,,,where we really don't feel our bodies Aging- and WHY should we...why can't we carry that 17 Invincible Magic Forward....and then I think of Carly Simon....she sort of dissappeared for a long time, then after her divorce from James Taylor she did a spontaneous Concert on Martha's Vineyard...Coming Around Again....I think we all are Coming Around Again...You Shine at 62....

enigma4ever said...

Please come to http://watergatesummer.blogspot.com/, someone has been using my E4e name and leaving awful messeges on other blogs- I am so horrified- but if you have gotten any please contact me- I need to figure out who would do such a thing.thank you.

enigma4ever said...

About you shining at 62...I posted a Birthday video for you....Coming Around Again By Carly Simon...enjoy...

Travis Cody said...

Happy Bloggaversary!!

I think I spell that word different every time. Hehehe!

I'm glad I get to come here just about every day and learn something new, or nod my head at something I knew on which you've put a unique spin.

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY!

When I turned 50 a few years ago, some women gave me advice at how not to be depressed.....

depressed?!......what nonsense!
I find aging so liberating..... just like the poem about the woman who finally learns to love to wear purple....

Schmoop said...

Happy Anniversary Jamie. I enjoy getting older. I find it liberating. Cheers!!