Frozen in time

I awoke thinking about the two children who had died after falling in Washington Park’s lake. It’s impossible to know what the boy had been thinking when he ventured onto ice which was nowhere near strong enough to hold his weight. Did he know he was taking a risk? Was he perhaps laughing with nerves and a sense of his own bravery as he strode further from shore?

As for the young girl, there’s no doubt of her courage. She paid the ultimate price for heeding the urge to save her friend

Driving past the park with my own son, one of three I’ve been fortunate enough to raise and see reach ages the two children lost this week will never realize, I looked at the pond and rued the rain falling. Had this rain fallen last week, had we not experienced the brief cold snap that created thin ice and big flakes of snow, these children would still be here on earth to celebrate holidays with their families.

More than a half century ago, my brother saved my life when he plucked me out of the pond I had mistakenly believed was frozen solid. I remember little of this incident beyond what the pond looked like – small, round and inviting. When I went through the ice and into the water, my brother was nearby enough to yank me out and onto the snow covered grass beside him.

That was the first time, but most certainly not the last, he rescued me from a situation which I wanted to escape.

Later the same morning, I read a couple of articles about aging and beauty in Hollywood. There was a media buzz about how remarkably young Demi Moore appeared in some recent paparazzi shots. Her face at 62 years of age was unlined and taut, her body thin and lithe.

It was enough to prompt her contemporaries in age to seek out whatever magical elixir she seemingly lived on. Was it a cream? A lotion? A surgical solution or maybe injections?

Whatever the artifice or device Moore and other wealthy middle aged women are deploying to maintain a visage which is simply unattainable for the majority of females in the world, it is something which holds no interest for me. While I’m happy to experiment with moisturizers and an occasional facial, I’m not seeking a product which will freeze my face into a false and permanent state of youthfulness, just a little dewiness.

It seems to me that if one is given the gift of aging, one should embrace it with as much grace as they can muster. Eternal youth comes with a price which I’m simply not interested in paying.