I have always wonder what it will be like to open a can that says baked beans and pour out crispy sweetcorn! That will be shocking, I actually read sometime ago that a disgruntled staff once stuff a can of beans with an item of clothing, canned it, allowed the can to find its way to some unsuspecting customer. If we assume that the can was stuff with a beautiful silk scarf, a lot more expensive than beans. The question then is, should the owner of the silk scarf be thrilled at her find or disgruntled that she didn’t get the beans she wanted? Should she complain or rejoice?
I remember my late sister, may her beautiful soul continue to rest in peace, in her 40s, 50s would say that she is just 18. She says this all the time jokingly and I could never understand because she looked physically her biological age. Today I understand, she was just a silk scarf in a can of beans, even though her outward man was perishing, her inward man was young, fresh and vibrant, continually being renewed. Some might argue that this is arrested development, I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist so I can not talk from such professional view but as an observer of life and deep thinker I can see the benefit of being a silk scarf but I can also see the challenge when we arrive in can of beans.
I think of myself, at some level I am not dissimilar from my sister, I am not just one age, outwardly I look a certain age, but my inner man, aspiration, preferences, dreams, interests are of another era. So who am I really? Am I the description on the can or the content? Am I the expectations of what the house should house or the person living in it? Am I the Gray hair, wrinkles, age related aches and pain or the blossoming soul full of dreams and aspirations? Am I what I look like or what I am? If we conclude on the outward appearance then we have a conundrum when the two do not tally. So should I think, behave how I look or should I act true to who I am? Should I lie in bed at night because it is sleeping time even though I am wide awake or should I get up and be creative and live the life I am urged to live. Should I live my biological age or should I live my inner man age?
What length is my hair? I have always wondered. If left alone, my hair do not grow at the same length, the edges rarely move, the centre grows long and dense, the side is sparse and not as long, the back does it’s own thing. I go to the hair dresser and have it trimmed down to equal length, yet it still grows unequally. We are like the hair on our head, different part of us grow at different rates, some age faster than others. If you are a 20 year old stuck in a 50+ year old body, why insist on living a life that is incongruent with who you truly are? Some of us age very slowly within. ‘Act age appropriately’ some would say. The question I ask is, ‘and what is that appropriate age?’ The age you see or the age you don’t see. If you have a young soul in an older body, please live your ‘true’ age, nature has kindly given you a longer lease or leash on life, do not confirm. And if you have a mature soul in a young body, enjoy the richness and depth of life that appeals to you. Society do not dictate who we are, we are who we are.
Of what relevance is that number that hinders the free flow of life? Ageism is such a big deal, when we use age inappropriately to rate and judge the capability of each, forgetting we are all like hair on the head, all at very different place and stage. For me, I am just 20, rubbing my hands gleefully as life is just beginning, do not be fool by the gray I got, I am just starting, I know where I am going!
Beautiful Ivory 