I never really thought I was invincible, but in youth, it is hard to conceptualize aging. As I grow and mature (ahem!), I am also having a few indicators of mild, well, degeneration. Nothing to really be alarmed about, and nothing truly intractable, but in the context of youth, and youth being all I’ve experienced, it is humbling. Bodies age, including mine.
I have also been thinking about my era of life in this context. One of the illusions I recently identified as such was that the first major changes in a post-pubescent woman’s body is childbearing. With that illusion, I assumed that I would see relatively little body change between puberty and childbearing, as if the body was in a static state of “maiden.”
So I suppose that my adherence to the trichotomy of “mother, maiden, crone” is eroding, as I slowly become more of the mother and less of the maiden. I also, obviously, am starting to realize that I need not have children to ‘officially’ enter that middle phase. Indeed, the childless women who are in their 60s are not still in the “maiden” phase, so why should I assume stasis for myself? And on the other hand, there are many women who have plenty of children and yet many never really get out of maidenhood. Judge not, I suppose, while I tend to my own evolution with care and love.
I read people’s online journals, blogs, etc and see these beautiful themes in many of them. Please do not expect from this site any consistency in theme, effort or perspective. Thanks.
*Post title is a line from an Outkast song "Pink and Blue"
