Are those Wrinkles Painful?

This blog might hurt. I know the impetus for it sure did.

I roiled and boiled and thought and considered on my entire hour commute, ruminating over what I felt was an unfair treatment of women of my age.

Recently, a coworker and I were discussing how we feel that we are becoming "invisible" and were trying to figure out when that happened. When did we walk into the room and no one cared we had arrived? When did we go from gaining appreciative looks from passersby to a slight nod of the head, if any acknowledgment at all? And if wrinkles caused pain, we'd be in a world of hurt. Wait... maybe we are in a world of hurt and nobody is paying any attention.

Many of us use Facebook to reconnect with people from previous schools, workplaces, and geographical locations. With that in mind, I belong to a group of former students (we didn't all graduate from there) of a DoD high school.

This morning I was notified that someone had posted on that group's wall, and here is what he (yes, that matters) said: I have not changed any of his comment other than to blank out specific names.
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The Last Time I saw this many old people, I just left my 90 year mom! Sorry, but most of the women look like my grandmother (I'm sure they are grandmothers at our age), but come on, eat less and go to the gym, Try to look at my friend (CH). I'm thinking.. Know wonder men like younger women, so many ladies out there have given up and let themselves go, I'll be 60 in July, but most people think I'm my 40's. I'm not braging at all, let's live longer for our kids, and our grandkids and get back to the gym. And just so you know, men would rather see you girls with colored hair, not grey, but what do I know?, after liviing around the world, and being a man. Just thought you might to know.
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Really, you thought I'd just like to know that? Know what most women live in fear of day by day? That they are not attractive to the opposite sex? That time is catching up? Or has already passed them by?

If you thought this post, Mister N, was going to help someone, think again! The counseling chairs are filled with women (and a few men) with eating disorders because of attitudes like this!

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of keeping healthy. There needs to be a balance between taking care of one's body and being overly concerned about outward appearance. And I totally agree that we should be around for our kids and grandkids. But this comment just hit me wrong.... or maybe it hit me right.

Right in the wrinkles. And that hurts.

King Me!

Nearly 400 years ago, the Separatists shrugged off the King's edicts and headed to the New World (that's the encapsulated version). So what is it that still draws us to royalty?

What causes us to long for the pomp, the queenly wave, the historical weight of it all?

Would it surprise you to read in the Old Testament that God never intended the people to have a king? HE was to be their only King, and therefore set up judges to rule according to His edicts here on earth. But the people clamored for a king. "All the people around us have one, why not us?"

The Lord relented (as He is prone to do to prove a point), and from then on the king was the "Lord's anointed" - the one chosen for the position. No one was to lay a hand on the Lord's anointed.

Then the world was turned upside down. THE Lord's Anointed One came, sovereignly, to take the place in our hearts of any other earthly king. No one is to usurp His authority.

And yet we strain toward earthly royalty. It is a reminder of prestige, of position, of authority.

I feel the tension. Do you? Wanting royalty "with skin on."

Lord, remind me again and again that I am to long after only my Heavenly King, and yet bless those in authority here on earth. Because You reside in me, Your kingdom is here.

God save the Queen (quite literally), and all her progeny!

Trying out Ping, Lara. But how do you know my taste in music?