Don't Feel or Look My Age. So What? By Susan Bonnici(New York Times)
1. Everyone wants to be and stay beautiful/handsome, cleared-eyed and optimistic. Maybe this is almost impossible task. For how can a person sustain things like raising children, with all those wrenching, heart-breaking times; carrying the responsibilities of adulthood, losing jobs, losing parents, losing spouses, without incurring a weathered look? In nature there is change: Season, cycles, evolution. So, too there has to be change for the human person. To remain forever young(or forever anything frozen in time) would have a stagnant effect on the whole person.
2. Some things go with the terrritory. The stretch marks a woman gets after childbirth would not be there if she didn't bring a new life into being. Whatever we are is a part of the rich history of our lives, our own unique story. It is a shame that in our youth-oriented society-too much emphasis is placed on externals. Stretch marks, gray hair, a receding hairline, age freckles are signs that we are getting older, but who cares? It is not all we are about.
3. Anything that lives on this earth must age. Otherwise, we wouldn't have any history! Look at a family and observe its life cycle: infant, child, adolescent, young adult, midlife, elderly; watch how each moves on to the next position, like game pieces advancing on a board. The game of life continues and before long, baby becomes grandpa.