For a couple of generations at least, we’ve succeeded in blurring age lines – literally. Aging doesn’t happen gradually anymore. Now we age in clumps of time and style. First we’re very young – say teenagers. Then we continue to dress like teens for at least another decade – sometimes two.
Then there’s the hip young adult period which often hangs around way past hip or young. Then comes a day of reckoning – sometime in our late 40’s. Nah. No reason to give in now.
Which could make 50 even more of a shock when it arrives. Except nothing seems inevitable any more. Because now everybody looks 50 forever.
We’ve heard the saying “At 50 a woman gets the face she deserves” but that’s not happening if we can help it. Past sins of bad nutrition, too many late nights and other forms of over-indulgence are smoothed over with new ways of caring for ourselves – and that’s without even considering surgery.
Here’s a thought. Since mommy and grandma look so similar, kids in the future may never know what old looks like.
Ó Anita Garner 2009