I’ve run through graveyards naked in college, danced with a frying pan after drinking generic vodka and powered milk, and done road trips that involved trespassing, dancing from the chakras, and rolling my eyes over a friend who climbed a 14,000-foot mountain in Chinese slippers. But whatever I’ve done in my youth, I realize as I get older, is nothing but heat and light compared to what’s ahead.
Maybe it’s a trivial starting point, but I noticed that when I posted on facebook a photo of myself with new red glasses and a notice that we all needed to wear red, purple or polka-dotted (or whatever is wild to you) such glasses after age 50 that such rules were already widely adopted. Red hat ladies aside, the kind of freedom I see among my friends in their 60s, 70s and beyond is infectious and reinforces one strong message: don’t hold back.
While it’s never been an issue for me to hide how I feel, I do find myself filtering what I say about what do a lot less these days. For example, as I write this, I’m listening to the overture to “Carousel” ]because I love show tunes (something I previously didn’t widely broadcast because it’s so uncool in most circles). I also have some Barry Manilow (although not “Copa Cabana” — eek!) on my itunes too. The bling I’ve been attracted to all my life has revved up in recent years too, and I find myself far more unfettered in aiming toward what glitters, shimmers and glows, especially if I can hang it on a wall or on myself.
What’s ahead, though, is far more than red glasses, glitter-bombed shirts and Gordon McCrae singing “Survey With a Fringe on Top.” It may involve hang-gliding, pitch-black night skies from the vantage point of a place where the population is only composed of prairie dogs, running a 5K, and relearning to ice skate, but it’ll surely take me to the wild new aliveness of being here. Like my mother, who is about to go to India for three weeks. Or like me next Sunday when I’ll see if I can fly while doing aerial yoga. Really. I’ll let you know how the view looks through red glasses.
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