� 2001-2006 by Shiloh
�
mehThen there's this one: "Think young, aging is for wine."
Age. Definitely one of those relative entities, like Time, that does or doesn't make all the difference in the world. It can be our enemy or it can be our ally. As kids we feel it's sometimes against us as we see all the cool things our parents or older brothers and sisters get to do. Stay up and be out late. Going to the mall with friends, without parental supervision. Eating in front of the tv--if it's in another room and not easily seen from the dining table. Having one's hair dyed. Even as teenagers, although older, sometimes we're still wishing we were older. Those years aren't the easiest and for some they are pure hell. Some teens can't wait to get out on their own, where they're living by their own rules and are allowed to make their own decisions.
Then, what later seems like all too brief a span of Time, we are in the prime of our lives. For a number of years we are young yet, but still old enough to do a great many things, taking advantage of the opportunities that come our way. Age is our ally, and it is here that for a time, depending on the circumstances, it is relative. Or can be. Friendship and sometimes love are no respectors of Age. People with 10, 12, 15 or even 20 years difference between them can be close friends or even be in love with each other. However, when one is still a bit young yet, namely in their early teens, and the other is in their late 20s or early 30s, if it's anything but friendship, mentoring and familial love age does matter. Anything else besides these seem and feel wrong. But, when the one finally matures and reaches their majority, what was legally and morally wrong is now ok, that's if love does develop between the two. Age is relative.
Taking a brief sidetrack for a moment, age is relative in another way. Remember the saying, "You're only as old [or as young] as you feel." True words, these. You may be a child in body, but old in spirit, being too serious and dour going through life because of whatever grave experience you've gone through. Or, as has been more the case several times that I've seen, grown people whom you'd think would naturally act their age don't. They act more like overgrown kids, vainly trying to recapture their "lost youth."
And we're back on track...
When middle age and the sunset years have come and settled irrevocably upon these types of folks, oftentimes life probably feels like the grains of sand slipping through the funnel of an hourglass. The children who were too serious and mature for their young age have aged too much in their soul as the years have rolled by: instead of acting and feeling like 55-year-olds--their true age, let's say--they act and feel as if they're 70. The adults who act like overgrown kiddies end up, if they don't wise up, spending vast quanties of moolah and wasting their time looking for ways to remain young, cool and beautiful. Some men buy new fancy toys to play with or hook up with mistresses. Some people are stuck in the decade of their late teens or 20s. Some women would rather die than to show signs of aging. They invest in new anti-aging formulas, they dress as teeny-boppers, they have a rhinoplasty, tummy tuck, liposuction, breast augmentation and any other conceivable plastic surgery to erase all signs of wrinkles. In their own way they are female Peter Pans or Ponce de Leons, refusing to grow up or any older, always searching for that Fountain of Eternal Youth.
The trick, like in anything else, is to find a balanced median between the two extremes. Don't be such a fuddy-duddy you're so serious about life. Being so will eventually sap your energy and whatever zest for life you have still. You'll literally be older than your time! And you'll feel it! Those who are grown up, yet let their inner kid rule their choices and actions, grow up! You don't need to chase youth to look or feel young. Exercise, eat right, don't drink, don't smoke and keep a zest for life going. You can still indulge your inner child and act your age too. Most people who can achieve both are the happiest I know. They look good, they feel good and they generally love life.
Aging is mandatory. A fact of life, though it is relative. Just like with Time, it is up to us how we handle this entity...will we accept it gracefully and work with it, or will we fight it and lose?
*Entry for the Alchera Project.
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