This monarch:
One isn't born looking like this, you know:
I'll spare you the lecture about how yes, there is a poignancy to how short a time one actually is a dewy-eyed, lovely maiden, but our culture has forgotten the longer-lasting, sturdier joys of being a formidable matron in our cultural quest to stay Hot as long as possible. Try if you like, but it's not going to work out in the long run. Very few people are hot at 70 and it seems more productive to work on building character, which you get to keep, unlike youthful good looks, which happens to be the very definition of fleeting.
Of course, I wasn't a good looking young woman - it took me a while to grow into my face - and while I'm happy enough with my looks now*, it doesn't pain me one way or another to think about looking older. I suspect it would be different if I'd been a beautiful girl, if being good looking was part of my identity - than maybe getting older would mean losing something that was a big part of my identity. I've felt sorry, eventually, for most of the really beautiful women I've known.
(*although older men keep telling me that "I've become a real handsome woman," which makes me feel like a striking large building. That's fine, I GUESS.)
It's also - meaning Victoria Day, which I seem to have strayed from - called the MayTwo Four weekend, which refers both to the date and to the fact that beer is sold in cases of 24, and with that you may gather how my fellow Canadians and I toast Victoria's birthday. A lot of the gardeners I know use this weekend as the marker for when it's safe to begin gardening, since it can be reasonably assumed (if you live in SOUTHERN Ontario) that you probably won't have a hard frost after this date. I'm not presuming ANYthing of the sort, however. My husband is on his yearly Manly Camping Trip, for one, and that always means a late May snowstorm. Oh, and I am having my yearly Petulant Fit about the whole thing, too.
The Boy - only having me for a parent - wants my attention, which means off I go. Sigh. Hope you're having fun today.
29 comments:
Two of my favourite quotes:
"At 20 a woman has the face she was born with, at 60 she has the face she deserves." Boy, is that true.
"Beautiful women are stupid because they don't have to try". This quote is from Candace Bushnell, so it has a little, ahem, irony attached.
Believe me, in Calgary, I would never plant anything except pansies, snapdragons, or other extremely hardy annuals until almost June 1. There was snow on the ground this morning! And it was 20 degrees yesterday.
Happy Victoria Day, Beck. That's a nice picture of the Queen when she was young. I agree that our culture's glorification of youth (and hotness) is silly.
I do not live in Canada. And I do not drink alcohol. But I enjoyed your musings about Queen Victoria and youth and looks, etc. I hope you have a good holiday today.
Alas, I was never unhandsome enough to NOT care how I look as I age, and not beautiful enough to still look good AS I age. (Have I mentioned how much I love the way you string words together?)
And why is it that you celebrate the two four on the one eight?
I am married to a Canadian, but he never celebrated Victoria Day. I have always wondered how it is celebrated. The idea of beer had not occurred to me. Thanks for the enlightenment!
Beer, you say? I may be American, but I too can honor Queen Victoria. Perhaps I can start by spelling "honor" as "honour" (for one day at least) then cracking open a beer when I get home from work.
You look beautiful in every picture I've seen of you and nothing like a large yet striking building. I, on the other hand, will resemble a large yet striking building if my weight loss plans do not work out. :)
Happy Victoria Day! I admire Queen Victoria, and I personally LOVE the grumpy dowager look. It's one I think I could manage pretty easily myself. Formidable? Maybe even that.
I've been thinking about our culture's glorification of youth quite a bit lately myself, and wishing I had the guts to follow the culture I'm in and just GO for the matronly look, which is what my body is striving for.
My hubby has to work today so I kind of forgot that it was even a holiday.
But then it was snowing and I realized that it must indeed be Victoria Day as it wouldn't be the May long weekend without snow.
I don't mind growing older either, probably because I never self-identified as a beauty, either. And I'm glad!
=)
The May Long Weekend is early this year so there is NO WAY I'm planting out my flowers. I refuse to rebuy annuals if they croak so I have to babysit them another week. Thursday they are forecasting -1C overnight. -1 for heaven's sakes. It's c-c-c-c-cold out there today too! I've never heard of the May weekend being called that. Alas, we don't drink but I did crack open a good stiff can of cream soda yesterday in honor of the lady.
And I happen to think you're gorgeous from any photo I've ever seen of you. Not at all like a building.
I'm sure there's a compliment buried in the handsome remark, but it's an odd one at that.
Maybe Canadians use that word more frequently? I know not.
As for growing older, whenever I hear moaning over reaching another milestone, I like to throw a 'it beats the alternative' out there, just for fun - or spite, I'm not sure which - because really? We are here such a short time.
I want my time to count, and I hope to grow old.
Happy Victoria Day!
Happy Victoria Day!
Happy Victoria day! We get Spring a little later than everyone else too.
Im doing a giveaway, come see for fun.
I asked this at Bon's place, too, but why is 24 celebrated so far before the actual 24?
Until Bon mentioned it, I'd never heard the May long weekend called the the May Two-Four. Usually we just call it the May Long. It's like milk in bags, ALL OVER AGAIN!
We did yard work. Back breaking yard work. And now buzzed on robaxicet and vodka crantinis, I'm going to shut off the computer before I go and make an ass of myself on Twitter. AGAIN!
Kyla, the Victoria day stat holiday is a floater. It's celebrated on the Monday, before the 24, unless the 24th is on a Monday. This is the general pattern for Stat Holidays in Canada (ie Labour Day Long Weekend, Thanksgiving, August Civic holiday which seems to have not agreed upon name). Collectively, we are pragmatic people who LOVE a long weekend!
We use Mother's Day (May 10th this year...is that the same in Canada?) as our gauge for planting outside. I waited until the 14th, so naturally we had frost on the 16th. Oh well. Husband covered the plants and they seem to have survived.
I always pretend the fireworks are for me.
Vicky and I share the same birthdate.
I think you are pretty cute so I don't get that 'handsome woman ' bit.
when can you start planting?
Happy Victoria Day--although it's winding down for you...!
I fear the aging because as a young girl, my plump, rosy cheeks looked china-doll-like, but as I get older, I think I will just look like a basset hound.
And oddly, my word ver is "lytsho" which if you say it phonetically, is awfully appropriate for the fireworks booming away nearby.
i've been thinking much about fleeting beauty. i'm not quite sure why.
"Very few people are hot at 70 and it seems more productive to work on building character, which you get to keep, unlike youthful good looks, which happens to be the very definition of fleeting."
Absolutely!!!
I have never understood the custom of calling women 'handsome.'
I don't really mind the surface physical changes of getting older. I worry more about what is happening inside my body. Plus, I cling to the hope that I will, eventually, outgrow acne.
I never plant my annuals until mid-June. By then, I can usually get Impatiens for less than $0.49/pack!
Happy Victoria Day from someone whose looks are going all matronly. I'm trying to figure out how to go with it gracefully...
I thought the "safe to plant" date was Victoria's actual birthday (May 24th). Being so early this year threw us off too. Here in Ottawa the "Victoria Day festival" ran from May 8th to 18th, which just felt totally wrong. Of course, the festival itself was not as advertised and dwarfed by the tulip festival.
"I've become a real handsome woman"
LOL
Hey! Something else we have in common. I 'grew into my features' too. It's hard to be an 11 year old who looks like later Dietrich, but it works a lot better in your 30s than that button nose that looked so pert and cute on the popular girl in high school. Heh-heh.
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