Fortune
Not long ago I wrote that had a meeting with a friend and after a long night of talks, I brought her to the airport in the early morning. She flew to France where she lives now. Frenches has nice advice, and I like it because it fits in a lot. I do not talk in French so the translation would sound – feel good in your skin. That is, feel good in every sense, accept yourself as you are and just be happy.
We talked about her teenage son and his transformation, about Clim and Max (climax, upcoming menopause), and finally, old age. And how difficult but important it is to be able to accept the running time, your changing body, both in adolescence and maturity, so that the soul and mind sing, not moan. As always, we laughed to tears and decided – no old age scares us as long as we can laugh at ourselves and the chain of not so beautiful but inevitable changes.
Well, the French are taught to accept and love their uniqueness, their imperfection from an early age, because that is where the beauty lies. Guys are constantly told that the scars adorn them and that the beauty of the man is in his ugliness, à la Jean-Paul Belmondo, French actor, who no one wanted to take to study acting because he didn’t meet the standards. Fortunately, directors who did not think of banal beauty formulas and standards opened up doors to him, trusted him, and thus unveiled the incredible talent, and gave the world another lesson – let’s see wider, let’s accept.
Of course, globalization and the media are under the influence of corrosion and rust for such a French upbringing – more and more children and young people want to be like everyone.
And what if we dare not try to fit into standards, be it children, teenagers, or adults? What if we dare to be ourselves – imperfect but loving ourselves – happy. Or more importantly, in this case, to love the other – imperfect, and neglect his flaws, roundness, sharp angles, hump nose, unequal eyes, wrinkles…
No wonder, no criticism, no labels, no condemnation, no moralizing, and a thousand more “no”. What if we dare? What if there was a revolution in our minds?
I urge you to love their changing body, to tolerate the changes of the other, simply to accept the diversity of life.
And remember: the best multiply is division, giving is getting. Let Thursday be varied, not standard, just happy. And just generous in every sense.
© Fortune, 2009
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Question of
Is it difficult for you to accept the transformations of your body?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you love your body as it is?
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Yes
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No
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Getting older is an adjustment. The older I get the more I learn is that what appears to be perfect at the time isn’t.
I like your insight on growing older. I am 65 and its hard sometimes to accept that my body has changed but at the same time, I am learning as I get older…
denial doesn’t help, so you might as well accept what you are
I love the modern technology because I can change what I don’t like in my body but then there are few changes which are natural and beyond human control so accept them gracefully!
There is this serenity prayer which say “God, grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, courage to change what I can and the wisdom to know the difference”
I follow that and all is well
I am a senior and have aged gracefully.
I accept what I cannot change, I am glad I need no medications, and on a very good day when I listen to my favorite music and don’t look in the mirror, I forget about age and time completely. Of course, then I pass by a mirror I scare myself to death LOL
I have learned to accept what I cannot change in life. It took years but I am there.
Well hamone is responsible for any change in the body.