Thomas Hardy, ‘I look into my glass’. A short poem, with a simple message: the speaker looks at himself in his mirror (or ‘glass’) and sees his wrinkled and ageing skin, and wishes that his heart was similarly weakened and reduced. The implication, of course, is that the speaker’s romantic leanings are those of a young man, even though the speaker himself is now old. The heart that beats in his aged chest is that of a young man still capable of feeling love, romantic longing, and infatuation. I look into my glass, And view my wasting skin, And say, ‘Would God it came to pass My heart had shrunk as thin!’ For then I, undistrest By hearts grown cold to me, Could lonely wait my endless rest With equanimity. But Time, to make me grieve, Part steals, lets part abide; And shakes this fragile frame at eve With throbbings of noontide.
Besides looking in the mirror being somewhat scary (thank goodness for failing eyesight), I seem to be turning into a recluse. I swear, I think I'd be perfectly fine if I never ventured farther than the sidewalk in front of my house. What's that all about??
One sign for me, and I think this is a positive one, is that I really don't care what people younger than me think of me. It's very freeing. I don't care if I'm not wearing makeup or my hair is flopped or I'm in house slippers, I can walk into a store and just not care. The older I get, the more people this weeds out.
I’ll say it @Hal Pollner. We guys get really gray hair and some of us even go bald! At nearly 70, I do have a full head of hair but my younger brother has been bald for years. Oh, and wrinkles. Our faces get really wrinkled and we get these baggy down things under our chins. Everything else though is as good as it ever was and some things are even better or at least, it is for me. The thing is about bodily wrinkles is that if they are filled with muscle, bingo....no wrinkles.
...or Fat!!.... I'm not being facetious here, people who are quite a bit overweight, tend not to have too many wrinkles and often look younger than their true age..,
Too true Holly! Sometimes less fat isn’t very attractive even in men and especially when we get older. When guys get to the below 10% mark it can be really bad thing because the skin just isn’t as manageable as it used to be. In short, it sags and yeah, looks terrible. To be real true, ladies at the gym who are “over achievers” kind of lose that nice round and smooth look that a little fat can give. Good call Holly!
Another way you know is you join actually choose to join forum where no one is sharing how high they got over the weekend, who so and so's baby daddy is and posting selfies in front of the bathroom mirror in your underwear blowing a kiss.
My daddy always said that fat smooths out the wrinkles. I am living proof of that my brother on the other hand looks like a shrunken prune