The Age of Aquarius

Is it me or does everyone at some point look at somebody they really thought they knew and realize they just might not know him/her as well as they thought? Let’s take that a step further now. Does everyone at some point in his/her own life experience looking in the mirror and not recognizing yourself? I’m about to turn 37 in two days. Surprisingly I can honestly say I’m not bothered by my age. But there have been times over the past few years that I look in the mirror and wonder who is looking back at me. Everyone can recall when you were a kid, even a teenager, and looked at someone in their 30’s as being old. One of my favorite personal stories is how my friends and I used to ask advice from a woman who was sure to know the answers at her age. We were seniors in high school getting ready for all the senior activities of the year. Senior prom was coming up and we were working part time at the only clothing store in town, Miller’s Outpost. The manager was a grown married woman and every night when we closed the store we would corner her and ask questions about how to handle the details of this very important event. We were all convinced she had wise answers for us. Looking back now? She was the wise age of 23! What the hell did any of us know at that age? She was still a kid AND too young to be married. Back then she probably would have thought 37 was old. So the obvious next question is do I think I look like I’m 37? Again, I really don’t mind that. Really. In fact, I was watching Monday’s episode of Ellen when it was her birthday. She turned 46. Her opening monologue discussed how our society is taught to always tell a person they look younger than their age. She pointed out that it’s sort of a backhanded compliment. You tell someone they look good for being as ancient as they really are. She went on to pose the question, what exactly is wrong with looking your age? We should be proud of how old we are. Hopefully it means we’ve experienced life and are becoming wiser. What’s so wrong with that? Someone someday may read this and think this is all just me trying to make myself feel better about getting older. It really isn’t. I think by this age if I was ashamed I wouldn’t be admitting my age out loud, much less putting it in writing. It’s also rare that you’ll ever find me bashing my beloved LA but it is unfortunate that here in the land of the beautiful, being and looking young is given much too much emphasis. Anyway, just my thoughts for today.