The recent passage of Tina Turner prompted this post. She’d always seemed ageless and powerful, possessing a vibrance that few others on stage possessed. In fact, she sold more concert tickets than any other single female rock-and-roller until Beyonce! When Tina earned Kennedy Center honors, Beyonce graced the stage – with the obligatory three dancers – to perform “Proud Mary” Tina style, that is, transitioning from smooth to rough like only male performers as frontman had ever done before her! It was enthralling as well as inspiring because, of course, she danced in high heels and was never out of breath! The modern equivalent of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de5Xauv99QM”

Another rocker who shared the era of Tina is Pete Townsend of The Who. He famously penned – and Roger Daltry sang – “Hope I die before I get old!” Ha – one wonders if that line embarrassed either of them when the birthdays mounted and moved each into middle and older age? Actually, the line resounds with me because I vow to not let my brain to atrophy and my attitudes grow old even as my body breaks down due to the vagaries of age.

I plan to pop pills, do yoga and PT, and eat as I should to mediate those issues to preserve middle age as long as I can.

“The middle (assuming it isn’t your end) is a pinnacle of sorts. A place not to stop the clock, but to pause and look forward and back, survey the past and imagine a future beyond the fog. The middle is aging and movement, as we watch the calendar pages fly. It’s arbitrary. If you’re not busy being born, or dying, then you’re busy living. That’s the middle. We live and, if we’re lucky, it’s long. Only you can tell the story. Maybe let it out of the box.” – Lisa Renee, “What is the middle? And when does it start?” 

“Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be.” The Elisabeth Barrett Browning quote graces the sundial I gave my husband for a long-ago anniversary. We recently celebrated our 47th! I can’t remember life without him –