At the conclusion of my first year of blogging -- and as I test the waters entering the second year -- I am astounded that we are living through an enormous sea change. So great, in fact, that full realization of its impact is yet to come.
Let me backtrack in order to convey the enormity and extent to which our present society's longest-held barriers and beliefs are being swept away by this unstoppable tsunami. Only several decades ago Coco Chanel liberated women from their corsets. Later, braless feminists loudly proclaimed freedom from perceived inequality -- trouble was, they tossed out the baby with the bath water, making things better in some ways yet ultimately unsatisfying for many.
It is informative to observe several scenarios that are being rewritten and played out with growing and glowing popularity:
As we watch I Love Lucy with nostalgia on PBS, we may ask: Will Modern Family, with its ménage of sexual and racial diversity, be viewed with the same quaint amusement in 2060? I guess classic movies will be defined by the absence of cell phones on the set. And phone booths on the street -- remember phone booths?
Julia Child, sipping wine as she blithely slathers butter, has given way to an international cast of chefs, some of whom are proponents of food that can be delicious and also favor healthy living. And could it be that the stage of the anorexic teenager in the media is gradually being shared by her mother, and -- horrors -- her grandmother!
My friend, Sel, a contemporary seasoned citizen, recently told me of a New York Times article about ladies of a certain age becoming spokespersons for beauty products. Another friend, Cindy, closer to our daughters' age, dropped off a copy of the same article.
Yes, there is Diane Keaton, still Annie Hall, wearing reading glasses -- now a fresh face for L'Oreal. Ellen de Generes is beautifully covering Cover Girl. Iris Apfel, 90-plus, fashion icon from way back then, features her huge sunglasses on images for a new line from MAC.
I have been in the closet, age-wise, since the days when my son and I were asked to sit in the children's section at the movies. Since I always looked younger than my years, I practiced "don't ask, don't tell." A close friend of my mother's generation used to insist that a woman who reveals her age will reveal anything. Since I say that I am devoted to transparency, isn't this the right time and place for me to fess up to every one of my god-given gift of 85 years?
This does not mean that I am going to stop coloring my hair! It does mean that I have completed my hero's journey... that I am heading home to tell my story to all who will listen. Home is cyberspace, which includes inner space!
This second year of blogging will narrate the emergence of an attitude signaling the arrival of a way of being in the world that has been a loooooong time coming. There's a saying dating from the hippie era (I think) that states "If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem."
Putting attention on the problem can be negative. Involving oneself in the resolution of the challenge, to use more positive language, is so much more productive and gratifying!
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My newest venture and venue is the Learning Annex in NYC where, beginning in early summer, I will be holding forth on the subject of -- what else -- UniqueU. This will be part of a new and stimulating curriculum being developed by Learning Annex featuring innovative presenters. There will be a marketing campaign in May to launch this event. Stay tuned.
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