I should have begun saving for a facelift many years ago. I didn’t! (Who thinks they’re ever going to grow old! That’s just for grandparents!)
Alas, the age angels have not seen to carry the weight themselves and have, instead, gifted my body with both mine and someone else’s share. They are not always kind!
Going on a senior trip with an aged group of people is a real eye-opener. Those leading the group, while professing to be in their late 60s (mere kids), had to be lying. They didn’t look a day over 50 until, during the long ride to our destination, I heard an admission that, “Having the doctor iron out a few wrinkles here and there have made me feel so much better. Not that I needed it yet, but why wait until I really did?”
So that was their secret. Me? I’m a chicken for just having a flu shot every year, let alone having someone carve my face as they would a Thanksgiving turkey so that even my own friends wouldn’t recognize me.
Ever notice that some of these movie stars who, after all the operating were done, are unrecognizable for the handsome stars they were at an earlier date?
However, the Good Lord, in His amazing wisdom, has allowed me to happily continue in this life with nary a worry about old age--that is until I went to my local eye doctor. He filled a new prescription for me.
It was when I put on the new glasses that I began to wonder how I could see out so well--until I looked into the mirror. Why, I wondered, did these new glasses magnify the few wrinkles I’d noticed earlier--or had I aged overnight? (All of a sudden, my bathroom mirror held a picture of my grandmother. Certainly that wasn’t me looking back in wonder at the apparition it now held!)
You know, when I was in my tweens--the years were just not happening fast enough. I wanted to be grown up; I wanted to be my own boss; I wanted to wear all the makeup the stars did, to be beautiful.
Then...
With my first part-time job (while I was in high school), I suddenly found out how much being beautiful was going to cost me. It was then I decided I would settle for just being pretty...I’d settle for something less costly then being beautiful. (Besides being less costly, this also took less time.) After all...I was almost grown up, in charge of my own destiny...
However, as most of us have found, the older we get, the faster time puts on its running shoes, and, before we know it, we find out how little control we have over many things. Aging is one of them.
Suddenly, with no permission from us, our children have grown up and moved out on their own. AND, before we know what’s happening, we’ve suddenly become grandparents. Although certainly we ARE young grandparents!
Then...
Before we’ve entirely adjusted to this phenomenon of nature, one of the grandkids announces their wedding. And our mind races back to the time we told our own grandparents that we were going to get married. (This very scene has played before--but with different actors!)
One of the greatest things, though, about being my/our current age is when I tell a tired, old joke, and someone will look at me and laugh, while commenting to someone else, “She’s just acting her age (which, evidently, is somewhere between senility and death)...leave her alone.” Then they’ll pat my hand (like I used to pat their head), roll their eyes and get up to leave the room.
Me? I just think to myself, your day will come...sooner than you realize...and let them and their ignorance pass by. (But they’re younger--what can one expect of them?)
Old age? It certainly isn’t for sissies, but then, it does have its perks. After all, I’ve outlived many of my school mates. That has to count for something. Now, if I can just figure out how to work this new-fangled computer of my grandson’s so I can record these thoughts for posterity.
Computers...what will they think of next? Why, I remember the time we finally got a nine-inch television set. We were the most progressive people around, BUT even with that modern invention, time moved on...the future has a way of doing that.
So what’s next for the current generation who will--one day--be golden oldies, too. Aging seems to happen to everyone--if they live long enough. That’s life in a nutshell!
(Columnist Faye Harris may b e reached via email at Fayeharris77@yahoo.com.)