Women in Their Thirties Will Some Day be Sixty

I work with mostly women in their thirties and forties who have no idea that one day they will be sixty. They have no idea that one day the five-inch heels they wear now will hurt the backs of their heels then and they'll wonder was it worth it.  They have no idea that the way they complain about their PMS will describe the flow into menopause… more or less flow, head aches, too fat, cravings, waking up in the night, sleepy. They have no idea that today they hear about a colleague’s parent dying and then another’s, then it will be their own mother or father, and then it will be their friend’s untimely death and another peer who died too young, and another member of their cohort who suffered too long, and then their close friends who one by one have heart problems or knees replaced and chronic diseases and debilitating changes. They have no idea that the homes and families they are trying to build by spending times in bars will grow and fill then empty again. They have no idea that the careers they are building will take a turn, a big turn because their job will end, the economy will change, their husband’s job moves, their child will get sick, they’re get bored, or they’ll get balls. The women in their thirties and forties don’t see sixty and I don’t see eighty.