I love it! I'm reminded of a quote from Hannah More, a contemporary bluestocking of Austen: "To learn how to grow old gracefully is perhaps one of the rarest and most valuable arts which can be taught to woman....it is a most severe trial for those women to be called to lay down beauty, who have nothing else to take up. It is for this sober season of life that education should lay up its rich resources."
It is premature in our thirties (or perhaps ever) to talk of "laying down beauty," but that line resonated with me when I first read it at 24.
Oh, she sounds fascinating! I will definitely look up more of her work. It feels strange, though, that acceptance of growing old is something that needs teaching. Perhaps we need to consider how we've made aging seem the most unnatural and repulsive process. At some point, we stop seeing of ourselves as 'growing' and start to see ourselves as 'decaying.'
I love it! I'm reminded of a quote from Hannah More, a contemporary bluestocking of Austen: "To learn how to grow old gracefully is perhaps one of the rarest and most valuable arts which can be taught to woman....it is a most severe trial for those women to be called to lay down beauty, who have nothing else to take up. It is for this sober season of life that education should lay up its rich resources."
It is premature in our thirties (or perhaps ever) to talk of "laying down beauty," but that line resonated with me when I first read it at 24.
Oh, she sounds fascinating! I will definitely look up more of her work. It feels strange, though, that acceptance of growing old is something that needs teaching. Perhaps we need to consider how we've made aging seem the most unnatural and repulsive process. At some point, we stop seeing of ourselves as 'growing' and start to see ourselves as 'decaying.'