Ageless With a Well-developed Funny Bone
For me, agelessness or being devoid of a sense of age can be linked to having a positive mindset. It means not feeling anchored in any specific stage of life. This is how I feel now, which is not very different from the way I felt in my thirties or forties. There seems to be no change. Age really is just a number to be ignored as much as possible. Books or films specifically for older people don’t particularly appeal to me. Obviously, keeping up with what’s going on in the world of the older generation is vital. After all, I’m part of it and pleased to be so. The alternative isn’t much to write home about! Staying aware of what’s going on in the generations of my children and grandchildren is also important. However, for me, immersion in “being old” is to be avoided at all costs.
Why should my attitude to life change just because society’s unwritten rules about what it is to be my age are not for me? How we live our lives in later life will have come about because of choices we made when we were younger. By cultivating a positive mindset and choosing healthy habits, like eating wholesome food and getting regular exercise in middle age, our later years can be as fulfilling and adventurous as they ever were.
The crucial difference in my sense of self now, compared to my younger self, is that I feel more confident. Age seems to rid you of some inhibition. My friends come from all age groups, not just from my demographic. One of my closest friends, at 44, is younger than my children. My most longstanding close friend is 81. Being involved in women’s rights at a local and national level brings me into contact with women of all generations. Mixing with younger people gives you a different perspective on the world from that of your older friends.
My age is something I rarely think about. It has little bearing on how I live my life. I still do most of the things I’ve always done and continue to learn new ones. Many people don’t know how to be when they are older, so they assume the stereotypical role model, doing themselves a great disservice. In a youth-centric society, accepting your age with pride is a vital step towards demolishing the ageism that predominates still today. However, being proud of your age doesn’t mean you have to conform to society’s construct of what it is to be your age.
Cher and Dolly Parton, two 77-year-old celebrities, recently shocked many members of society when they appeared in their shows dressed in clothing considered “not suitable for women of their age”. Women not only have the style police to contend with, but after the age of 50, they have the age monitors to answer to - or ignore, depending on the women’s willingness to conform. That females in their seventies can be seen as “sexy” rather than grandmotherly, confounds the mental image people have in their stereotype identikit for older women.
Never think of yourself as being too old to do anything. There are people in the media and on social platforms in the older age ranges proving that life doesn’t have to stop or slow down because you’re in the third stage of life. When I graduated at the age of 53, it was the achievement I’m most proud of. Studying while working in my late forties and early fifties was a real challenge. In the first year, I met a woman also studying for a degree who was in her late eighties! I believe she graduated too, in her nineties. What an inspiration.
It takes a little more time and effort to keep fit and healthy when you are over 60, but it’s well worth it. Besides my writing here on Substack, making headway in amendments to a second book, and my involvement in women’s rights, I take a strong interest in what’s going on in my country and others worldwide. Politics used to play a larger part in my life as I held various roles in the local branch of my then-political party, of which I was a member for twenty-five years. When the establishment took over the party once again, I withdrew from participating in politics.
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