I would never tackle writing how to keep yourself looking young though I do think there are some things that help. One that really doesn't help are facelifts. Egad, some of the beautiful movie stars have ruined their faces and no longer even resemble themselves in their attempts to look young. But that's a whole other article. What's wrong with wrinkles anyway? Most of your friends know how old you are, so it's weird if you don't have any wrinkles. However, you can quit wearing the same hairstyle you wore back in high school, and I don't think it hurts to color your hair. If you are one of the fortunate ones whose hair turns a beautiful shade of white, leave it along, but mine is a most yukky mixture of grey and brown--and so I've decided to be a redhead.
Oh, my, I've really gotten off track, I really wanted to write about things that you can do to keep your mind young. Most of my Stiletto gang members don't have to worry about any of these things yet, but I think there might be one or two readers who are closer to my age bracket.
A big thing is to get out of the house once in awhile. For writers this isn't the easiest thing to do. Most of us would like to devote our days to sitting in front of the computer and hanging out in the worlds that we create. And the older I get, the more I want to do this.
Fortunately, I have a husband who likes to get away once in awhile too and we both love to go to the movies and have a nice meal out.
We also like to leave our mountain abode and head over to the coast once in awhile. Often it's to visit our kids who live in Southern California, at other times we'll go to the Central Coast, often for something to do with book promoting. We've made lots of good friends in that area of all ages who we like to spend time with or to be correct, with whom we like to spend time.
And that leads me to another point. It's important to have friends of all ages. When I was young, I had a lot of older friends, especially writer, writers I learned a lot from or (from whom I learned a lot.) Now I'm the older one and I have a lot of young writer friends. I hope I'm as helpful to them as my older friends were to me.
I belong to the same critique group I joined way back in 1981. Of course many of the faces have changed, but there are still two of us from the original group. We have three younger women now who are a delight to be around--plus they keep us on our toes, pointing out things hat have changed. Plus they are a lot of fun. We held a couple of our writing meetings at Starbucks recently and had a great time chatting before we got down to business.
Hanging out with kids helps too. I'm fortunate because I have a big family with lots of grandkids and great grandkids of all ages. I also teach a Sunday School class with kids from 2nd to 6th grade. Big range, but the older ones help the younger ones. It's a great way to learn what problems kids face today--much bigger ones than I faced way back when.
And then there's reading. I like to read all sorts of books though I'm partial to mysteries. I loved the Help, book and movie, brought back lots of some unpleasant memories of when I lived in the South. I also loved the three The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, and all three of the movies--and the American version of the first one. I recently finished Stephen King's long, long story about President Kennedy's assassination, which was far more than that and yes I loved it too. I read all of those books on my Kindle, though I have a stack of paper books in my TBR pile.
I love blogging and Facebook--not so much Twitter, though I do tweet once in awhile. I've always loved e-mail. And I couldn't do without my Blackberry which I use for so much more than a phone. Hardly anyone has my phone number, just family. So I guess, the point here is keeping up with all the new gadgets and social venues helps too.
One last thing, being a part of The Stiletto Gang has been great fun for me. I enjoy reading what interests the younger generations and what my fellow writers are producing.
Anyone have any other ideas about how I can keep my mind young?
Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com/
I know you write "puzzles" so maybe that counts toward what I'd suggest, but . . . puzzles, quizzes, riddles, plain old board games, etc. I think are great for sharpening the mind. They make you work your brain, but they are PLAY to varying degrees and I think back to being a kid and how much of what we learned we learned through playing and letting our minds run amok a bit.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me that you're doing just that. You have a wonderful full life. I think you enjoy it, and that counts for everything. and, yes, I think it's great to die your hair!
ReplyDeleteVicky, you are so, so right.
ReplyDeleteHi, Lil, I do enjoy what I do.