I knew I was a writer by the time I was in 5th or 6th grade. I even took it seriously when I was an angst-filled teen-ager and I have the journals and stories to remind me. But when the weight of my independence started to distract me and consume the time it takes to sit and write, I decided writing would be a luxury I would enjoy when I am old. And I focused on my career and on "living a rich life" that would be give me something to write about some day.
I'll be 42 in a week or so. And my life, up to this point, has been rich. I am grateful for that, but I am sad about aging. I feared aging even when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I never wanted to be taller than my mother (who is 4' 11''). On my 22nd birthday my friends threw a party for me. I didn't attend because I'd deemed 21 the last good year. I spent my 22nd birthday in the student commons of Pacific Lutheran University watching the Tiananmen Square Massacre. (a proper blog would make that a link. I need to figure that out)
Aging is this weird thing that consumes me. Is it an existential thing? I fight it. I'm confounded by the process. It offers no end of amusement, even while it grosses me out. I think I can talk about it from a place of experience, but at the same time I have no idea what I'm getting myself into with each birthday.
I want to age gracefully. Who doesn't? But am I? And is there a better way to do it?
Here is where I'll explore all that. Here, on the cusp of 42. I should have named the blog "gray pubic hair"
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Sheldon The Wonderhorse
Kerry Lauerman
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Comments
magnificent. I am sick of seeing shaved women. It's an attempt to de-womanize women, make them look pre-adolescent.That's just
plain pedophiliac sickness.
Celebrate your woman-ality.
Just what grosses you out? The best way to age gracefully is to embrace fully. Go to a gym keep your body in shape. Stay horny.
That keeps the juices flowing, and vaginas don't dry out.
42. Oohhh. You're a baby.
Welcome!
Pubic hair.
I think it's silly to paint the whole removal process women go through as "an attempt to de-womanize women."
We circumsize boys for cosmetic reasons and unless you're Jewish, it's nothing more than cosmetic. Many men wax their backs and their "bikinis" these days. (imagine the pain of that!)
Do you wear make-up? Paint your toe-nails? Color your hair?
Everyone wants to be sexy. We modify ourselves to achieve our brand of sexy and no-doubt that's informed by media and whatever pop-culture mood of the day. We all do dumb things once in a while in hopes of looking more marvelous than we feel.
For the record, I lazered about 75% of mine off. And what remains is not yet gray. I just fear the day I find a gray pubic hair in the little patch I have. And I tease my aging friends about theirs. Thus my last sentence.