Now just admit it. Your eyes wander too. When you're in the supermarket, at a party, even when in church or temple where they're not supposed to do that...!
Lately when mine wander, they somehow seem to travel to the big eyes and skinny waists around me. Nothing lurid to this. Simply the reflective eye of an aging guy who has neither of these left. Big searching eyes are what distinguish infants; skinny waists, childhood. Those wondrous infant-eyes signal the astonishing appetite for information about their amazing new world. Those skinny waists represent the lean luxury of young unabetted health.
However, if you're a professional eye-wanderer, the search doesn't stop here. Registering the obvious is prelude, not conclusion. The wanderer must now consider this space/time gap that exists between your eyes and waists, and their's.
Age does many things to us. Some good, some not so good. My inquiry here is twofold. Why has the size of my eyes narrowed...? Why has the size of my waist expanded...? If this begins to sound like a botox commercial, you can stop reading right here, for you're not with me.
Cosmetologists tell me our eyes narrow with the years from accumulating fat layers. Portrait artists, psychologists and clerics tell me it has more to do with the narrowing of our sense of wonder, as our world grows more hazardous with the years.
As for the waistline, physicians are quick to explain how the abdominal muscles weaken. Those same artists, psychologists and clerics submit that time often softens the will. The will to continuously seek and strive, preferring instead to slow and settle.
The next time I find myself wandering and wondering like this, it will be my hope that whatever the explanation, the gap between then and now has been worth the journey. That these eyes -- narrow or not -- have learned some things; and that this waist -- thick or not -- has added experience as well as inches.
Having said all this, I am at last comfortable giving all my saved 31-inch pants to charity....!
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Aging gives and aging takes away. Sounds fair.
ReplyDeleteWell, we age whether we plan to or not. Those who fight it sometimes appear a little silly. Those who embrace it appear philosophical. Either way, though, the skin sags, the bones dry, the muscles atrophy. But none of this need attack the spirit. Our spirit is impervious to any outside attacks. Only susceptible to inside doubts. Remember the Trojan Horse....?
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you how tired I am of all the "skinny waists" and how society DEFINES people by their waist size...men as well as women. It's all a bunch of bullshit!! Why can't we just accept people the way they are, for what they are!!! We are not only a number on a scale!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDamn right! But now if we ever wake up to this common-sense reality, think of all the pill-pushers and diet-gimmicks that will lose out.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, couldn't happen to a better bunch of hustlers.