Bette Davis has been quoted as saying, “Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” The quote, or variations of it, has been repeated countless times. Whether Davis said exactly that or not, many of us who are north of 60 believe that it accurately reflects the challenges to our mobility, sleep, digestive system, hearing, eyesight, memory –either our own or those we love, and care for, as spouses or partners. We’re far from our 22 year old selves and there are many who spend a lot of time regretting that and despairing.

By contrast, I’d like to offer up the lines from T.S. Elliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” :

“I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.”

One interpretation of this 1915 poem is that Elliot was celebrating the eccentricity of aging and not caring about social norms.

There’s something to that. Many people I know, when asked about one benefit of getting older is that you feel less inhibited to do something that might have held you back when you were younger. Whether you have a WTF attitude about behavioral norms, or feel somewhat bolder, many of us feel that’s a definite positive for the “scales of aging”.

So consider that attitude before feeling dreary about all those candles the next time you’re confronted with a birthday cake. Be grateful you can still blow them out–regardless of how many breaths it takes.