What Does Aging Gracefully Mean, Anyway?

Mastering The Art Of Aging Gracefully

 

Now that I am “there”, it seems that everywhere I turn, there is discussion about aging. Ad nausuem. How to avoid it. How to embrace it. How to deny your age. How to act your age. Or not. How to prepare for aging. How to reverse the aging process. Articles, books, “experts” waxing on about it happens, what it means, and how to avoid it.

This onslaught of aging info, advice and industry has given rise to a whole new crop of phrases and cultural terms that resemble a semantic free-fall. “Anti-aging” (Well, it is like a battle, no?) “Cougars”. (Omg.) “Fifty is the new forty“. (Hm…) Fer cryin’ out loud. Have people never aged before? Could this rampant interest in anti aging (as opposed to the simpler, old-fashioned idea of aging gracefully) have anything to do with the healthy economic profile of our baby boomer population?

I’ve become hyper-aware of the endless marketing strategies that dog my every move on social media, TV and the internet. Regrow your hair. Plump your lips. Firm your butt, and your pelvic floor while you’re at it. Lose terrifying amounts of age-related belly fat.

It may be a quaint term, but the idea of aging gracefully is anything but. For me, I tend to think that perhaps aging gracefully is more about moving forward in a manner that doesn’t deny who you are. Recently I was watching a cosmetic ad, a branding video for well-known model and celebrity

I happen to feel that having liposuction or Botox or anything of the sort if absolutely fine, but at the same time, I’m kinda partial to the imperfections and ‘signs of maturity’ that come with aging. All too often I see otherwise really attractive women walking around with lips that look like they just went 9 rounds with Laila Ali. Sheesh. Relax, folks – it’s all good!