Don't Get Too Paltry

[poliphilo]

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,

Yeah, that's what I think too- only Yeats took it too far with that monkey gland treatment which turned him into a randy old muppet and probably killed him early. There's an art to growing old. You gotta let go, but not so your brain starts turning to porridge.  Listen, the world belongs to the young and anyone over a certain age ought to get out of the road and go sit under a bo-tree- but not so far out of the way as to be out of sight and hailing distance of passing traffic. There's this wisdom thing, see, and this death's head thing; both of which the old should cultivate and present to the young with a teasing smile so the young know they've got it coming.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I watched an old Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire movie yesterday, and how beautiful they were in their glittering clothes! An older woman, a character actress, said to Ginger, Listen, when you're my age, you take any attention you can get! And I thought about how Ginger herself got older and older--there's just a moment when one is beautiful and perfect--but that's because we have to procreate, so we look most fetching when our reproduction capacity is at its best.

Today, with my children coming in for Thanksgiving, I don't mind so much having silver hair near my ears: I look like a grandmother, and that's okay with me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm much happier now than I ever used to be.

As a young person I was in a constant state of high anxiety.

There's a real pleasure in knowing that the high-octane years are past.