This morning, the Voice in the Shower told me, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. None too original, I know, but it made sense, as it was in response to what I was thinking about while washing my hair.
One of my great teachers posted this on Facebook:
I agree that time is absolutely not linear, but remarked that it isn't this pretty. But she says it is, from a distance. Actually she was careful to say time, from a distance, is beautiful, not so much pretty. Hence the Voice in the Shower's remark is interesting. How can she behold time from a distance? Here's what she said:
"At the end of Chaucer's Troilus, after five volumes of much happiness and much dreadful grief, the dead Troilus ascends to the 7th sphere (I think it's the 7th) and looks back on the earth and laughs. That's where I'm at."
She's a professor of medieval literature, so she gets away with saying shit like this. Still, I wondered, How Does She Know? Because she is currently embodied, living within time. I guess so was Chaucer.
I can't imagine time as beautiful right now, probably won't be able to for at least a few weeks. I'm closing in fast on age 60 and in a bit of a tizzy about it. I realize, as the Spokesperson for the Fabulousness of Aging, I'm not supposed to be freaking out.
My current strategy is to go with the flow of this tizzy. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. A friend of mine who turned 61 last fall says it was a tight spot, passing through to age 60, but afterwards, things settled down and she hardly thinks about it now. She said she is enjoying life, and hopes to linger a bit longer.
I'm going to try to hang on to that piece of wisdom because I, too, hope to linger a bit longer in this beautiful, crazy, troubling, intoxicating, endlessly fascinating thing we call life. Oh yeah.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Indeed!
11 comments:
My mother said the same as your friend - healthwise and emotionally she did really well after 60, before that, all through her life, she had many major challenges. She still has challenges with my Dad but seems to have the confidence and good health now to deal with him adequately.
I'm hoping, after 60 next month, things will lift for me too!
I feel I'm already fitting into my soon-to-be 60 year old self - it's all a bit of a relief really!
Ha! my mother always envied older women when she was younger because they had the freedom finally to be themselves. Granted, this was in the 1970s when she said this, but . . .
time is a lot like your wonderfully skewed photographs.
I don't know what i mean by that...
I do! Interesting but not not symmetrical and not beautiful! Thanks Tom.
a tight spot passing through to 60. yes, I think so. I'll be 62 in April and I think I'm over it, the whole being 60+ thing because I do feel fine, am active, still being productive. life is good.
Maybe your tizzy has to do with the end of your sixtieth year, rather than a lead-up to a year of tizzies. That is, maybe you're finishing off a difficult year, ready for smooth(er) sailing as you start your next decade.
And, now that I think of it, maybe smooth sailing and linear clarity are over-rated.
May you experience wonderful things in the future!
Thanks Rebecca! I have had a wonderful year. Who knows why?
If you believe that time is absolutely not linear, then what is there to fear about a birthday on a linear line? And even if time IS linear, why fear 60? Why not save your trepidation for 100? Then 60 will seem young enough. (I'm approaching 67 and still have the same delight in life I had at 6 and 7. You can, too :)
The lower photograph thrills me (much more than aging does, but I'm a little sensitive. . .)
Pauline, if only my heart was rational!
Meri!
Post a Comment