My Ma is a physically remarkable person. I won't tell you how old she is because she thinks it is a horrible faux pas. Let's say she is way past 70 and doesn't look much older than that. It's a lucky genetic thing. Not everyone gets one of those.
Middle age is insulting. It does things to your body that you can't believe is happening to you. Like you were going to escape the same thing that has happened to every human being luck enough to survive such a thing. Aging, you bastard!
Sure, there are things that you can do no matter what your genetic code that is delivered to you to make it less horror show...to you. Exercise. Don't drink and smoke too much (aka the recipe for wrinkly bloat). Stretch. Don't stress. You know. The stuff that they tell you about in the thousands and thousands of articles in magazines under the sneaky guise, "Secrets To Anti-Aging." It's called taking care of yourself. Duh.
But sticking botulism in your face? Sucking the love handles out of your sides or under your chin just makes you less floppy in one place? Dying your hair a color that isn't fooling anyone? It ain't going to stop the clock. In fact, sometimes it just makes you look wrong.
There are perks to aging. You are over 35. It is now. It isn't the someday that you were dreading. Youthful years of adulthood are very very short in the scheme of a lifetime and when you cross the ranks of middle age, the symptoms of aging arrive out of nowhere. Those tight butts have a real quick shelf life. Reproduction years are waning and the biological reason for attracting others is fading out. Folk's hair falls out but maybe your hair was supposed to be temporary, the propensity to gain weight due to build will not allow any leeway at all ever again (kiss cheating on diets goodbye). Those love handles that have been giving you grief are going to pick up power against you in the fight but dammit you have great legs, your eyes will have wrinkles, your chin jawline will seem a little less tight but your little nose looks even more adorable in this face. It is supposed to be that way. And its going to happen.
At a certain age, you hit a point when being disappointed in what was given to you is just sad because you are finally at a time where you can be who you are. Doesn't mean it can't be the best exercised healthy form but shy of unnatural acts, it is your natural process. Trying to find approval in a youthful environment with the expectations of a youthful body is just going to make you feel like shit being beautiful exactly the way you are. If you are being punished for being your age, fuck 'em if they don't like it. You earned this body and there is relief in not having to be worried that you have to envy everyone with body parts you didn't naturally have in your genetic code.
My time bomb will go off completely one of these days, just hopefully on my Ma's clock with folks who find me perfect the way I am supposed to be or at least rejoice in how great I look next to people my own age. To me it seems like there is nothing sadder than see a person abuse themselves for being natural. Not lazy. Just natural.
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