I Will Not Let You Grow Old (An Open Letter to My Friends)
February 28, 2009This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!
2/27/09
Dear Friend,
I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.
Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.
Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.
Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.
So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.
Sincerely, Your Friend,
The Brown Kid
Dear Brown Kid,
I see that you are still a “young man.” And, while I agree in principle with your sentiments here, some of us will not “go gently into the night!” While ‘Growing old is a rite of passage’ is a common plater, it doesn’t mean that everyone feels the same as you about appearance. Inside that body with a muffin top is a body that used to look sexy…and still wants to be sexy. So she’s gone a little “overboard” (pun intended). Who are you to judge? I’m in my 50s and still look great…though I don’t show a lot of skin, but that’s my choice, not yours. When you get there, remember those of us who went through that door before you. We are still alive, still dreaming, still needing love…and not ready to be covered up in an ankle-length dress and sweater just to please somebody else.
I hope that you are gentle with your friends, because you’ll be needing your friends as YOU grow old…and wishing you weren’t.
Sincerely, A Cute Grandma
Cute Grandma,
thanks for the comment. I agree with everything that you said. While i am not saying that as we grow old we must cover up, I am saying to my friends that we must remember our age. I am not saying wear keds and long dresses, I am reminding us that as we age, maybe we should think about shopping in the adult section of the stores rather than the juniors section. Though we may still be able to wear the same size we were in high school, it seems silly and almost contrived that we would wear the same clothes as our sons or daughters may wear.
In reply to your question, I am not one to judge. As I said, this is an open letter to my friends. My circle of friends and I have this conversation all the time. We are a group of 30 somethings who are parents of 1.95 kids, have mortgages, school loans, 1.75 cars, and know that we are still simply entering a new chapter of our lives. While we know that we are still young and just starting our adult lives, we also are smart enough to see a ridiculousness in the idea of dress style that may be our impending future…and we don’t like it. That is why I gave my word to my friends in this letter, to them, to not let them grow old and in this – as we see it – embarassing fashion dilemma.
It is not that I don’t want to grow old. I enjoy the idea of growing older and somewhat wiser. I enjoy knowing a few answers on jeopardy, not getting carded for beer, bringing flowers home for my wife, and changing the diapers of my daughter. I also look forward to many more things like ordering off the kids menu for my kids, (more) gray hairs, no social security, and ordering off of the senior menu in the distant future. I, and my friends, actually embrace – though (in true honesty) at times reluctantly – the idea and our inevitable growing older.
What this letter is saying to my friends, and hopefully others who see the described above and might agree and disagree with, is embrace aging. Dont revert back to your daughter/son’s style. It is ridiculous. Anybody can be sexy at 50, 60, or 70+, as you stated. It is a state of mind. As long as you are still living, dreaming, and loving. You are absolutely right in saying that you are sexy.
Thank you so much for visiting and commenting! I look forward to hearing from you in the future!
Sincerely,
the brown kid
Good lookin out broseph. Thanks.
Did you ever notice that the older women get, the shorter their hair gets? Just let me know when it’s time for me to cut my hair. I don’t think it would look very good but I guess that’s a part of growing old.
when i get old i am going to purposely hang my butt crack out every where i go, so please don’t say anything.
Ron, you totally SHOULD wear long dresses and keds. Cynth would like it. I just know it.