Ageism
Ageism is the most saddening trend of recent years. Under the guise of "self-care", we are putting ourselves through the torture that is deep self-hatred.
My grandmother will be 94 years-old this year. She is the youngest of 5 (all boys, she was the only girl). She had measles as a child and survived, despite becoming deaf on one ear because of it. She outlived both her parents. In fact, she has more than doubled the age that her father lived. She outlived all of her brothers. All of their wives. Some of her nieces and nephews. She spent almost half of her life living under an oppressive dictatorship, witnessed multiple armed conflicts, survived a bloody pandemic!
She only went to school until the age of 10, yet created a successful business along side my grandfather. Said business put my mother through Law school and my uncle through Business school. Both of my cousins went to Med school. I went to Law school and my older brother works in the marketing department for a big international company. Although she doesn't always comprehend what we do, she is insanely proud of each of us and will tell strangers on the street about our accomplishments.
She is beloved by both her family and her community - most of which she, too, has outlived. When she passes away (in many, many years, I hope) she will be greatly missed by all.
And yet ...
Sometimes she will turn to me and say she no longer recognises herself in the mirror. Or she will say that she no longer wears lipstick because "women her age should not wear make up". She gave me one of her white purses the other day because "she is too old to wear it". We are living in a society that convinces people like my grandmother that there isn't a space in it for them anymore. That, in turn, is trying to convince every single one of us that becoming someone like my grandmother is undesirable.
I will counter argue by saying that not only is my grandmother one of the most beautiful women on earth, both inside and out, but she has also lived a more fulfilling life that the great majority of influencers you see on social media selling "magical creams" and "baby botox" to impressionable young women.
And if I die looking like her, face covered in wrinkles from all the smiling and all the crying and all the living I got to do, I will die a much happier woman than those who think chasing eternal youth is the reason they were put on this earth.
