We did it. In various stages of health, appearance and mental ability we have reached 2016. Congratulations! As I have said before dwelling on the negative is a waste of time and an emotional downer and I advised you to be a cup is half-full person especially as it applies to age-related issues and those concerning future events. For example, I fear some seniors skim over articles mentioning anything scheduled to be finished beyond next year. They figure, “Why bother.” Wrong mind set.
Any topic worthy of discussion, while it may make your blood boil, is at least keeping it circulating. Interest and desire to see a project finished has been shown to enhance one’s chances of doing so. “Project” includes graduations, weddings, elections and erections. Interest in what is going on takes you away from the TV and keeps you in the world, otherwise relevancy wanders off and dullness and boredom settle in. Don’t waste this precious time.
For senior LGBT members the world has expanded enormously from when many of us couldn’t or wouldn’t come out. It is never too late. Want to liven up your life? Send out a brief hello to your high school and college friends through Facebook and your alumni association. Then, to those who respond, casually come out and see what happens. Relating “Birds of a feather” to your past circles of friends, there might be a few, or more, confessions in reply. Imagine your reactions, “I THOUGHT so!” “What? A secret club on campus?” “She never fooled me.” “You and my roommate!” for some examples. Involve yourself in the now. Visit the happy past; live in the interesting present and anticipate the positive future.
When things got bigger
My VHS art film collection admittedly has a nude figure here and there occasioning me to speculate on the growth of certain body parts and how we got what we got. In my day, as now, girls noted with wonder and excitement as their upper body parts expanded (or not). The boys, likewise, paid considerable attention as their lower body parts grew (or not).
Today pictorial displays of the pertinent areas are easily available to the computer savvy teens and such sights invite the inevitable comparisons by the curious. We had nothing of that sort; the underwear pages of a Sears Roebuck catalogue (ask a senior) was about as informative and thrilling as it got. Of course, girls becoming women were given “the talk” which enlightened them as to function, but size (of both parties) was too indelicate to be discussed.
The boys becoming men usually settled for general and often inaccurate information from older kids whose boasts of their own size was generally highly exaggerated. This led to efforts at personal enlargement requiring daily and excessive secret techniques of a mind-boggling variety and bizarreness. I have never dared ask what the girls did. Remembering our glory days, we seniors cannot but notice the difference in the waxing of some body parts and the waning of others. Many of us no longer find it a priority to check our nude selves in the mirror. We realize admirers are still around who appreciate the total appearance of a well-dressed, charming person. There comes a time to acknowledge that the importance of sex and size has faded, and furthermore, without the frustration of pining for the unattainable, life is more enjoyable and worthwhile.
