Passages
“Speak
your mind, even if your voice shakes.”
Maggie
Smith
Maggie
Smith plays roles that every older woman wants to imitate. Whether
she's the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey, or Muriel Donnelly in
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, she speaks her mind without hesitation.
As a woman, a miraculous thing happens when you cross the
threshold of fifty: you lose your fear of authority figures. In
fact, there are no authority figures. It's quite freeing.
Which
is not to say that rudeness is acceptable. It is not, or at least,
should not be. I think the sense of freedom comes from no longer
needing to please everyone around you. As an “elder,” one is not
expected to be the smartest, or the most beautiful, or most talented
person in the room. Someone else can step into the spotlight and wear
that weighty tiara, while you sigh with relief. What an elder does
bring is a lifetime of experience, and hopefully, a good dose of humor and common sense.
Developmentally,
the life stage requires slowing down outer activity so that one can
go inside for reflection. If one has led a life they feel good about,
and proud of, then contentment is predominant. Wisdom, I think, comes
out of that contentment. We feel, “It's okay to be me.” It's
critically important to live our life, not just observe it, so that when
we arrive at this stage, as Maggie Smith has, we can say with
certainty, “This life of mine has mattered, and it's been a heck of
a ride.”
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment