Dear Jessica Brennan,
If you want the answer to a complex question, ask a six-year old. They will simplify the most complicated issue down to basic steps like, “Maybe you need a nap” or “Sometimes I like to jump through the sprinkler to feel better.” This is sage advice.
If you want perspective on a situation, ask a ninety-six year old. By this point in time, they know a thing or two about what matters and what doesn’t and they also know – but are likely too kind to tell you – that if the last twenty-five years went by like a flash, the next twenty-five years will go by twice as fast. Often all the tomorrows we stress about are behind us before we get the opportunity to give them the proper worry we so desperately want to torture ourselves with.
If you want to know what’s really going on, ask a fifteen year old. When I say “really”, I am talking about the pulse of all things new. There is no insight like that which comes from an almost adult who has no driver’s license, mortgage or likely even a part-time job. Freedom never meant more, and in freedom we find wisdom.
Using sweeping generalizations:
- Ask a woman in her thirties if you want to know about struggle and coming to terms with past trauma or disappointment. She is transitioning.
- Ask a woman in her fifties if you want to hear about a new comfort found in her own skin. A skin she never thought she could love. These women don’t sleep, so they have lots of time to be your friend.
- Women in their forties finally know they are beautiful and have discovered that the ticking clock they are trained from birth to fear can actually bring with it some lessening of responsibility.
- In their sixties women are steady and reliable. Ask them anything. By this point they have been through enough decades and known enough generations to provide sound perspective.
I think it is important to have at least one friend in every decade. One that is under ten, one that is a teenager, one in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and if you can 100s. I don’t always have one in each because people keep jumping into the next decade when I’m not looking. Children are the worst. They sometimes jump two decades before you know what’s happened. You’re a good example of that Dear Jess.
As you get older, you might think you don’t want a friend in their twenties or a teenager as a pal, but when I hear people complain about kids and give them all kinds of labels, I simply think they are wrong. The kids might eat avocado on toast, but we ate Pop-tarts for heaven’s sake. That’s not even food.
Somebody has to clean up the planet, so I’m glad they are eating healthy fats and whole grains. They are going to need their energy for the mess we’re leaving them.
Love,
Mum xo
