You don’t notice his larceny right away because his daily thefts are small and subtle. Like a crafty swindler, he does not steal big, but he steals steadily. From day to day you won’t detect the loss of a few hairs, but one morning you wake up and blimey, you are bald.
The same goes for your skin. Wrinkles appear in the cover of the night and won’t leave in the morning. They found a nice smooth spot on your face and they are squatting on it… and as you know, it is difficult to evict a squatter. As somebody said:
“Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.”
When men work, they don’t pay too much attention to their physical appearance. They get up, shower, shave and out they go. They are too preoccupied with their line of work to notice the small indignities that Father Time is inflicting upon them.
When you are in the rat race, you cannot bother with details. You need to keep running and prevent the younger rats (those with a full head of hair) to gain on you. But after a few years (and a few extra pounds) you are not running as fast and as long as when you had hair. Like Samson, the loss of your mane seems to have affected your strength and you can not repulse the Philistines (the young rats) as well as when you have a full head of hair. A wig won’t do.
The only consolation for us mere mortals is that celebrities are not immune to Father Time’s larcenies. He robs them as well as us. It is always shocking (for me anyway) to discover during a TV appearance that the dashing young star that you knew is suddenly a puckered old man.
Do you remember the handsome young lad named Mickey Rooney? Do you remember hunky Marlon Brando? Father Time did a job on them.
But maturity has some advantages. When you are getting long in the teeth, you feel free to say whatever goes through your head. Nobody can hurt your career anymore. It is like kissing goodbye to the Senate; if you are Republican, you feel finally free to vote for a Democrat.
“Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.” ~Maggie Kuhn
The best antidote to advancing age is laughter. Laugh at everything and everybody. Especially businessmen turned politicians. They are clowns and beg to be laughed at.
Alain
And if you’re not getting enough respect at home, maybe it’s time to travel overseas? In many parts of the world, age is revered. Bart Astor