I Know A Young Lady Who Swallowed a Lie

I know a young lady who swallowed a lie,
I don't know why she swallowed that lie,
I guess she'll cry.
I twisted the folk song "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly" by Rose Bonne and Alan Mills

Tina knows she is breathtakingly beautiful. She doesn't have long to live.  She is radiant in her brevity
.

There is an old saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I would like all women to look at themselves differently, through their own eyes, to behold their own beauty even if society tells us we can't be beautiful because--- we're too old, too fat, too skinny, too dark, too loud, too much, too________________. Sadly, society can be a cruel dictator and the constant images thrown at our young women are of anorexic teens posing as grown ups and then air brushed for the glossy page. That is a lousy way to influence young girls. If I were queen I would definitely put a stop to that. Truth in advertising ha!

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The woman [or man] who lies to herself and listens to her own lie comes to a point where she cannot distinguish the truth within her or around her and so loses respect for herself. And having no respect, she ceases to love [herself].                                                                      I monkied with the quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Pow! Grace and beauty combined

Delighting in friendship

The glory of  little girls in our culture, and perhaps globally, is that they are joyfully fearless in their appreciation of themselves and delight in what they can create and do. This gets knocked out of them by the constant bombardment of the advertisers, misogyny and peer pressure to be, look, think a certain way. And with the haters in our and other societies it is necessary to put the female of the species down, down, down.

There is some hope on the horizon: women are fighting the good fight to be heard and understood. Consciousness has been raised and we are inching toward equality in pay, positions of power and respect as human beings. Even Barbie is being remade, she is a bit heftier. This isn't a joke although it is funny. Barbie can now be a firefighter, a hero, a space explorer, a doctor, you get my drift. So much better than Barbie who just can go to the prom in her 5" high heels with her 14" waist. Silly example but it is a step forward. Perhaps Barbies sales were falling off...which would then suggest a marketing tool...but still.

The inevitable outcome---for everyone---is you're going to get older; so don't slide through life. Savor it. Slow down, be kind, pay attention.                      Carrie Fisher

I agree with most of the above from the interview with Carrie Fisher. We are all ageing and wouldn't it be nice to be embracing each era rather than looking askance at the expected decline? My own dear mother told me when I turned 55 "go look in the mirror". I did and came back to the phone, she said, "it's all downhill from here." I tell that story often and it always gets a laugh. Had she been a different kind of mom she might have said, "quit criticizing yourself, you look great and should appreciate it today because you'll look back on pictures and really appreciate your younger self." That was so not her personality but I did get the message. 

The lie says there is no decline, no getting older. You can/should be as youthful looking and perky as a 30 year old even if you are double or triple that age. I must admit I'm not sure I completely agree about the slow down part of the quote. I do know that "slow motion gets you there faster" [Hoagy Carmichael]. This is especially true when it comes to learning something new. At this point in my illustrious life I am attempting to refine my guitar and music writing skills and it ain't easy. The lie would say, "why bother Susan, you're in an enjoyable period of retirement, there's no need to strive". I'm not about to go on tour, or even get one of my songs widely disseminated. So why bother? Because it's important for me to strive, to learn something challenging. Most of all I want to keep that incredibly energetic 10-year-old-tom-boy part of me vital until I die. So there.

To me the best part of life is laughing, talking, singing, playing, romping, hiking, loving, experiencing, rejoicing and being in a calm serene state as long as I am able. In order to do all of the above I have to keep learning, and be quite disciplined especially in paying attention to what brings me energy and joy and focus on that. What helps? Staying aware and amused all the time about life.

SISTERS ARE THE BEST


susansmagicfeather copyright 2016 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved