Many of us grew up with the story of Peter Pan, the mythical boy who could fly and would never grow up. It was one of many images that seared into our subconscious the idea that to stay young forever was ideal.
Now that we are adults, anti-aging seems all the rage. There are hundreds of products advertised every day, each promising to take years off your face. Countless procedures from injections to surgery pledge to make you look younger.
It seems everyone is clamoring to find something…anything to avoid looking like they are getting older. The strange thing is, while we all want to live longer, no one is willing to age.
Rather than battle against the natural process of life, Ashton Applewhite encourages us to embrace it. She promotes the concept of pro-aging in the midst of a society obsessed with anti-aging. We know that the prefix anti indicates fighting against something. What we tend to forget is that what you resist persists and aging is no exception. No matter how hard you fight to disguise it, each day you are older than the day before. Why not celebrate who we are all along life’s journey?
Fighting it is futile and absurd—we can no better stave off being older than we could stop the process of moving into adolescence. The only truly effective anti-aging remedy, the only 100% guaranteed way to forever stay young—is early death. So I join Ashton in proposing we become pro-age instead.
Color your hair if you want to, but do it for your own enjoyment, not as a desperate attempt to hide who you are. Soften the appearance of wrinkles if you choose, but don’t distort your face into a caricature of yourself in an effort to turn back the clock. It’s time to stop being afraid of moving into a new age.
When we shift our perspective on aging from the myth that it’s all about decline and ugliness to the truth that we’re still the same us that we’ve always been, but with more experience and deeper wisdom…that’s when we can claim and enjoy this powerful chapter of life.
Decades ago we started a revolution that transformed this country into one that thought twice about going to war and made room in society for women and minorities. Now we must make room for ourselves as we age. Pro-age is an idea whose time has come.