‘“Cougar Town” — the whole Cougar phenomenon — perhaps taps into many women’s worst tendencies: their fears of getting older, losing sexual power, ending up on the slag heap of social desirability. But most women, I think, end up taking these feelings in stride. Most women in their 40s, however conflicted, however sometimes confused, aren’t actually spiraling into self-doubting despair, but are actually working their way toward some greater degree of self-acceptance. Many experience — along with the shift in body mass that pulls things down and pushes them sideways — a kind of psychic shift that frees up some of the energy that once went into external appearances. Many come into their own, creatively, professionally. And in motherhood, in friendships, in romantic relationships.’
[NYT]
To my nonexistent audience on tumblr: On my list of lifetime vows to myself is a solemn promise not to ever complain about my age. Not at 26, not at 30, not at 40, not even at 80 (should I make it to 80, God-willing). What’s the point? One, it doesn’t make you feel good. Two, it doesn’t make the people around you feel good when they have to constantly coax you out of your never-ending self-pity.
