Old is gold

Why is it that people are paranoid about getting older? Wrinkles, extra curves, lines and grey hair all seem to bother them a great deal. Creams galore, machines and dyes and various 'beauty/anti-aging' elements, pills are prevalent today. For what? Surely, no matter what you do, you are going to look your age (give or take 2-3 years?)...and so what?

If these people would concentrate on health or even beauty (to some extent), that would be fine. But to grapple with growing older is stupidity. I mean why would a fifty year old yearn to look 35? Beats me. But maybe I cannot understand it because I am not even 35 yet, ha ha.

Besides, I always have considered growing older as a good thing. It means you're staying alive, collecting experience;). It does not mean that you have to look young till the day you drop dead. Nobody in their right mind would want to die young so be prepared to look your happy old and hopefully graceful age until it's 'your time to go'.

Old is one thing. Haggard is another. At 70, you may look haggard and that could be the time you could consider anti-ageing stuff. At 40 and 50 if you look haggard, it's your overall health that is the problem, not your skin and hair. At 30, 40 and 50 if you are trying desperately to look younger, you have too much time on your hands;).

There's something great about growing older, something wise, something graceful, a calm outlook, and something else...oh, yeah, you are still alive!

So, oldie (!), pull yourself together, get some fresh air, laugh yourself silly over something, catch up with friends, maybe even have ONE or TWO drinks ...and then check out your smiley expression in the mirror. Those wrinkles will look like laugh lines!

Cheers!

Dad-daughter cuteness

I noticed a father dropping his 6year old daughter off at school. However, perhaps it was a late, rushed morning,the girl did not have her hair neat and combed. The Dad whipped out a comb whilst just outside the gates of the school and for a full five minutes tenderly and smoothly combed his daughter's hair, gently getting rid of the tangles and really, doing it just as well as a Mom might!

I don't know what it is about fathers and daughters that melts my heart -- maybe cos I am a super 'Daddy's girl' candidate, but to watch dads bonding with their little girls is a real little pleasure indeed!

Coincidences

I love coincidences! Not the depressing ones, but the small stuff. For example, I was imagining what I would call my non-existent column in some famous publication and then, a few hours later, an old, good friend gave me his blog address and when I checked out his blog, there was one of the three options I had thought of for my column-to-(may)be! I was so kicked about it. Fools may seldom differ but then great minds think alike as well!

Then, there was the time when I wondering why one of my old, good pals (abroad) had not wished me for my birthday and I had just finished stating at home that she was the only one, surprisingly, who had forgotten my birthday and weirdly, within ten minutes of that, her mother who lives here in Chennai, called to wish me and it was too much of a coincidence not to mention it to her! Anyway, it turned out that my pal did not forget my birthday, she just did not manage to get through to me...frankly, in this case, the thought counted!

Then there is the 'vetti' (i.e. insignificant) coincidence of noticing a car in front of you on the road and it's number plate and on another location, a few minutes later, spot another one that shares the same license plate number.

All right -- I am a coincidence person. But it's the people-related coincidences that make my day!