"You may not be as pretty as in your 20s but I'll bet you are a more fascinating woman!"
And a friend commented on Facebook:
"
I would agree that everyone gets more interesting as they age, as long
as they take pains to keep their habits and activities fresh and out of a
rut. I'd say you are accomplishing this nicely!"
Excellent words of wisdom! I'll be mulling over this 'facinating woman' idea for some time to come, I think. Trying it on, tweaking it about, seeing if it fits and how I can style it.
I just tried searching the phrase 'facinating woman' and came up with a lot of traditional American homemaker stuff. Ick. Not my idea of fascinating. I'm more in tune with my friend's comment about becoming more interesting as we age by making sure we keep learning and growing.
The Shakespeare quote alluded to in the title is "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety". My overriding philosophy since moving to England has been 'Try something new'. I wouldn't claim (or want) infinite variety but I have loved stepping out of the old ruts of who I think I am and what I think I do. My younger self wouldn't recognise me in some aspects these days.
I do recommend a seismic change every so often. I transformed myself around age 15 when I found a group of friends who hadn't known me since I was a baby. Being a new context allowed me to work out who I really was, instead of being stuck with the old expectations and patterns. Now with this move I've been freer to do that again.
So what? Well, I guess I'll keep working on this fascinating thing and see where that takes me. What do you think - do people get more interesting as they age?
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| Obvious symbolism with the snake! |
This comment is from a friend on Facebook: "For some people, as they get older they continue to learn new things and leave themselves open to fresh experiences and world views. Those people do get more interesting as they get older. Meanwhile other people get more choosey about who they interact with, and firm up their world view by closing off from people who disagree with it. Those people get less interesting.
ReplyDeleteSo, as with everything to do with humans, it really depends which human you're talking about. Some get more interesting, some less interesting."
Having enough money to explore the broader world certainly helps. I don't mean exotic travel, just access to culture and the world of ideas. It also helps to know smart persons in various age groups. I saw, during the years that I visited my mother in her assisted-living home, that the interesting elders were still engaged with the world, and avoided junk TV and celebrity gossip.
ReplyDelete