YOU SAY I'M WHAT!!!

I want to slap Emma Thompson's face! She's an over-rated actress, anyway! Did I say slap, I'd like to slug her! Emma uttered fighting words.

In a recent Parade magazine article, she stated that women go thru 3 stages: NYMPH, MOTHER, and CRONE. Well I never went thru ANY of them, not a one! All of these are labels and demeaning ones at that, including Mother.

I hated my mother! She was crazy and abusive. Just the very word makes me taste bile. Any idiot can reproduce and too many of them do!

As for nymph, NEVER was I the flirtatious type! If you don't like me, I won't try to change your mind.

And then we come to crone. I recently turned 63. According to Emma, I became a crone when I turned 60. -- Take my word for it, no one would ever mistake me for any one's little old lady! I'm better looking now then I was at age 16. And I'm sure that's true for many! Women today do not dry up and deteriorate with age the way they did in decades past.

At 16, I was still going thru my nerdy, awkward stage. I didn't really start to blossom until I hit age 20. -- But my real life didn't begin until after I turned 50! This is when I came into full bloom.

Certainly, most of us were more beautiful in our 20's. I know I was! Plus it was an eventful decade! I made 5 trips to Europe as well as exhilarating fun-filled journeys to North Africa, Russia, Finland, Guatemala, and 2 trips to Mexico. I relish every one of those trips and the memories. Unfortunately, I always returned to my miserable life.

Then came my 30's and 40's. These were largely spent in a psychological oubliette. A french word meaning, "A place of forgetting," where someone is locked away to die slowly or go mad. -- I almost did! Suddenly I was hit with chronic unemployment and worsening mental disorders. Plus I was dealing with the undiagnosed ones of others.

The Grim Reaper was my emancipator. He didn't come for me, but my wardens.

At age 50, I suddenly found myself alone in the world. -- And I mean as alone as one human being can get! What evolved was a joy I had never before experienced. I discovered freedom!!! My world moved at MY will. Now, I am the one in control.

For a modern woman, Emma's thinking seems dated. At varied events I meet plenty of women in their 60's, 70's, and even older. If you think they are crones, I've got a biscuit for your seeing eye dog!