I was naked for a bit the other day and walked by a full-length mirror,and I was startled, as I sometimes am, to look at the man in the mirror, I was shocked, at first, to see it was me. I am getting older, and I look older, and I suppose that is appropriate for someone who will be 69 years old on August 8.

I look at the beautiful flowers on the windowsill of my study and saw that they are beginning to die, they are getting older and losing some of their color and strength. Me, too, I suppose. I wonder if, like me, they see themselves in their minds as young.

I don’t feel old, and I don’t think old either. I don’t define myself in terms of health or my age, I don’t wish I was young again, I don’t believe the old days were any better than the new.  I’m still younger than anyone running for president.

Life is beautiful, for sure. This is not nearly the worst time in our history, or the history of the world. It isn’t even close.

History is the great teacher of perspective, we never know how lucky we are until it is too late. The young are not supposed to be wise or pliant, that is the job of older people. If the young were like us, there would be no hope for the world, it would be dull beyond imagining and stale.

My flowers are beautiful, just as much today as when they were picked. I’d like to think I am more beautiful than I was when I was young. Maria says I am beautiful, but I confess I don’t believe her.

But when I look at my windowsill, I think differently. I might be beautiful in the eyes of others. It’s not really for me to decide how I look. Looking at my older flowers, I think it’s possible for me to be beautiful, our world has trained me to think differently, old people are hidden away from the world, we are not in movies or on magazine covers. In books we are all doddering droolers.

When i take photos, I know it is possible to take a beautiful photo of anything. Maybe it is just as possible for someone like me to be beautiful in the same way. It isn’t what we think, it’s what people can  see. Can I see you? Can you see me?