Recently I was given a copy of Judith Viorst’s I’M TOO YOUNG TO BE SEVENTY, AND OTHER DELUSIONS. I am not sure why the book was given to me because I am way too young for it.
Each decade Viorst publishes the perfect birthday gift for readers - a collection of poetry that is age appropriate. The first on I received was It's Hard To Be Hip Over Thirty And Other Tragedies Of Married Life. The books have been coming to my house like clockwork and each one hits the bull’s eye.
It is hard to admit, but she has done it again. She understands that erotic options may be limited at seventy and that the grandchildren are not children any more. She understands that not only are we our husband's life companion, but his driving coach as well.
Maybe the best advice in the book is contained in the poem, "If I Should Die Before I Wake". We ladies know that if our husbands remarry, we want the new wife to make our him happy. We just don’t want her be quite as perfect as we are.
Her poem “Still Dieting After All These Years” reads as if she has been in my house. I think I will take her advice on this one-- wait until I’m ninety to worry about it. I hope that Judith and I are both around to enjoy whatever she writes for that glorious occasion.
Whether Ms. Viorst is writing children’s books, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, or a great discussion book about how we change as we grow such as Necessary Losses, she has an eye for the human experience with just the right amount or humor. I am waiting to see how we both handle turning one hundred.
Yes! Yes! She hits it so well--I love her stuff..and the aging comments. Back from CA....
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