Lali started me thinking about this. What type of old lady do I want to be?
- I would like to be like Helen Mirren. Dignity, glamour, humour and sexuality defying age. But that would be nice even at 46. If I don’t have it now, I doubt I’ll acquire it in the next 20 years!
- Adventurous. My husband has an aunt and uncle who, in their late 70s, are still planning their next trip overseas. We both admire their enthusiasm for the world; the fact that their thoughts always turn to “what’s next?”
- Still acquiring knowledge. At the very least I want still to be trying to learn new languages, and about the world as it will be, trying new foods and cooking them at home, interested in new music (and playing some) and art and books and theatre and film.
- I want to be like the silver haired ladies I saw recently when I was shopping with my niece. They were trying on trendy, elegant clothes – age appropriate, but not stuck in the past. Those elderly women were very much of these times. I felt like saying to them “bravo.”
- I want to be up with the latest technology, communicating easily with my family, friends, and nieces and nephews scattered all over the world. Even when I’m no longer as mobile as I would like to be, I don’t want to feel cut off from the world. Technology should allow me to do that.
- I want to have young people in my life to help keep me young and in the world. I’ll have to work on that. It’s easier for people with offspring.
- I want to be the sixty or seventy year old still in the gym, lifting weights to maintain healthy bones and exercising to keep a healthy heart and lungs.
- I want to go on lots of walks, breathing fresh air and appreciating the NZ bush and birds in a way I don’t always have time to do now.
- Above all, I want to live in the “now” whilst appreciating the past.
- Last but not least, I want to have laugh lines, not worry lines.
I love this list. But I have to admit that I wish I was better at some of these things right now.
Ah, Helen Mirren. I have an 80-something-year-old friend who saw her on the London stage many years, in a full-frontal-nude role, and he still thinks fondly on it…
Maybe I can come visit in our retirement and we can go birding together.
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I know someone who watched The Queen and was having problems coming to terms with the fact that he was attracted to Queen Elizabeth.
I especially like #10 on your list.
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I WORSHIP Helen Mirren!!
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