The other day in a cafe, I stood in line behind a middle-aged woman who was dancing and singing along to a pop melody playing on the stereo. It was sung by a young black woman--I don't know who it was, or what the song was, but it was soul-oriented and this white middle-aged woman was trying very, very hard to embody that style of music--trying so hard that it was painful to watch. Then a few hours later, while stopped at a long stoplight, I watched another middle-aged woman in a car with her tween daughter, bopping her head up and down to something that was playing on the radio or on their CD player. The daughter looked on with a tentative smile. I don't think her mother was embarrassing her; but I felt like the mother was embarrassing me, and I don't even know who she was.
Some middle-aged women try their very best to be hip, but I have a feeling that the harder they try, the harder they fall. I looked on at these women and could not help thinking, "Please, Guardian Angel, don't let me succumb to the urge to act younger than I am."
I know, I know--some people will say, What's wrong with a middle-aged woman or even an elderly woman dancing disco or hip-hop or whatever it is? It's fine if the woman can do it with grace and style--but I've never seen that happen.
Which leads to the question: what does it mean to have "grace" and "style" at this age (45)?
Something to ponder--I certainly don't have any kind of sufficient answer to offer at the moment.
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