May I share it with you?
Tell me, when you watch women on television (newsreaders, reporters, weather forecasters or what you will), has it occurred to you that they all look and behave as though they were somewhere in their mid-thirties? With the men there's no such problem. Over the years you can see them mature. What's more, you can guess with reasonable accuracy which generation they represent.
Not so with the women.
This strange set of affairs leaves you with the impression that women, having reached the age of thirty-five, decide by common consent, stay put.
Mind you, there's an understandable reason for this phenomenon.Over the centuries our western culture has spawned what is now a widely held belief`: the concept that women, once they reach a certain age, become both invisible and ineffective.
Who wants to be invisible and ineffective?
It's hardly surprising if older women, particularly those in the public eye, do their best to keep this unwelcome prospect at bay.
But is there, I wonder, a downside to eternal youth? If every woman looks and behaves as though she were thirty-five, could society as a whole have lost something?
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that we've lost a great deal.
We've lost the wisdom and experience of the older woman. We've lost the comforting lap of the understanding grandmother. We've lost the ability to grow old with panache! We've also lost (and this is a surprising one) the fresh-faced teenager . . . not only do women refuse to grow old, but little girls are positively encouraged to race headlong towards a caricatured maturity.
The outcome? We all of us meet in the middle. All members of the female sex, from childhood to old age, all squashed together in a state of mid-life congestion!
It could, of course, be argued that the very concept of age is irrelevant. We all know children who were 'old souls' from birth, we all have lively, elderly friends who are still wondering what to be when they grow up. But surely the very structure of society needs the supportive strata offered by an acceptance of the ageing process?
A child needs a grandmother to fulfil a very different function to that of a mother. A child needs a mother - not a fashionable best friend. And wouldn't you agree that we all need little girls - not mini-adults in make-up and padded bras?If the men can do it, why can't we? If they can mature gracefully without fear of being ignored and rejected, why is it that western women feel this pressing need to live an indefinitely extended youth?
Let's grow old together . . . let's grow old exuberantly and triumphantly. Let's relish the wisdom we've accumulated, laugh at our wrinkles, act our age and value our importance in society.
And there's one important truth that we're all inclined to forget.
No amount of wrinkles can conceal or diminish the ageless attraction of a youthful heart.
