Food For Thought: Aging

Consider this thought.

"Any fear of aging, I think it is simply vanity. Because what comes with age is so many wonderful things: wisdom, understanding." -Leighton Meester

Brigette Bardot in her "glory days" as a young woman.

At some point we begin to think about ourselves aging past this stage of "youth" into mature adulthood, to middle age, and finally to elderly. When we are young, and people ask us what we want to become in life, we answer matter-of-factly with responses such as a policewoman, or a teacher. We live in that state of eternal youth where life seems to stretch into infinite days where life is defined simply. Yet, at one point we all realize the inevitable: parents die, siblings die, pet dogs die, and we, too, will eventually die.

I think this is where the fear of aging comes from. We are afraid of ourselves changing: our youthful, "beautiful" appearances change, and our souls wisen yet our bodies age and devolve. We are vain, yes, but personally I believe that this fear comes from our fears of dying, such as: what are we missing out on once we are dead? What will happen to us? Yet, there is nothing we can do to slow the process. We can remove our wrinkles through injections, get daily facials, or dye our hair to its original state, yet we are still going to age. 

Simply, society is the problem. Society is the root of so many problems. Problems with our body image, our clothing, our looks. Society does not find many elderly women attractive. Why, today I heard this girl talking about Brigette Bardot. "She was so pretty in her twenties," she said, "But now she is ugly. She's like, old. Like, 80 old. How attractive can 80 year old women be?" In my mind, I feel her perceptions are all wrong.
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Brigette Bardot today.

Yes, she may not be the world renowned beauty she used to be, but she is still beautiful. We simply need to look for the beauty inside ourselves. Finding that beauty, I believe, is the key to our problems. Once we realize our self worth on the inside, corny as it may seem, aging does not seem as scary. Look forward to the day where you can relax after a lifetime of good work and realize you have accomplished and learned so much. Look forward to the day where you will be 80 and still see yourself as beautiful as you were when you were 20. If we can see in ourselves today, can we not make a better tomorrow for us all?

What's your opinion? Comment!