When the "anti-aging" concern is not worth our time

Anything that shows the merits of advancing in age, I like. Hasn't so much attention and misplaced adulation toward youth been given already that it has drowned out reverence for the elderly and for the natural course of life? I mean, I was even chided (albeit good-naturedly) recently for referring to old people as "mature" in a casual conversation. "She's so kind to call them mature..." one of my companions smilingly told the lady we were having lunch with. I forget what we were actually talking about but later on it struck me that probably fewer people than I think honestly equate old age with maturity in the true sense of the word.

Here's what I believe: as a person grows older, wisdom is acquired with the years -- or so we ought to aim for.

I found something about some positive turns in the lives of some women through the years. Check it out --

Gail Sheehy, who wrote a book about seasoned women, described them as “marinated in life experiences.” According to Sheehy’s research, many men who have stayed on the same career path all through adulthood are thinking about retirement when they reach their 50s, whereas women feel like they are just beginning to reach their peak. In contrast to men –– who become more nurturing as they grow older –– women in their 50s, said Sheehy, tend to “become more focused, more managerial, more aggressive and more political.” As the boundaries of the human lifespan widen and extend, women who are “somewhere between 40 and death” are just getting their second wind, and they are less likely, according to Sheehy, to have an agenda than are younger women. They have learned to separate possibilities from illusions and are more willing to realistically embrace new opportunities because they’ve learned from past failures and false starts.

Read the rest here