Thanks for the article, Rose.

Pelican,

Definitely Yabby for Mr April.
I think you're onto something about the female usually being the attractant. And I like your term, "the glorious facets of our bodies as we age". I turned fifty this year, and have been quite interested in the psychological significance of that milestone...haven't noticed anything I would consider particularly glorious happening so far - but I'll keep you posted.
My own experience so far is that I feel okay - my body has changed to some degree over the years, but it's holding it's own I think. And, although one of my chiildren is in her late twenties, I also have a nine year-old son who's a ball of energy and enlightenment..so I suppose he'll either keep me young or wear me out.

We are unique

I have an answer; You have developed a Freudian fantasy exposing a subliminal attachment to James Bond. The answer could be less movies and more life; maybe a touch more of the unfettered abandonment in the name of art displayed by Rosie: Avoid people in wet suits and balaclavas with greying hair and beards, they tend to be dangerous; fortunately, mostly to themselves.
Happy and safe new year (You too Runner)

Heh the 'four post in 24 hour limit' kept me at bay but I was keen to respond to Pericles, meanwhile there's been a veritable chatty cocktail soiree happening in my absence. It's nice that you are all so familiar with each other.

Peri - men who write, do write about everything. Men are just as - sometimes more vain than women ('comb-over' anyone?) and I'm tall, so I've suffered the indignity of being made to feel 'too tall' by some insecure short men. We're all the sum of our parts, just some more than others - and those parts also include intellect and heart.

My dear friend and mentor, who 'checked out' last year in his early 50s, wrote an agonised piece in Penthouse Magazine in the late 1980s - about turning 30! He lamented the sporting achievements he'd never make, the women he'd never bed...among other things. He was a tortured soul for much of his life, but the 'claws' of aging stabbed him deeply.

We all share our humanity pericles, just some of us are more keen to share it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! x

I have two friends whose husbands are both around fifty - one just over, one just under. Although they are not acquainted and move in different circles, both of these men have recently felt the need to purchase their first big motorcycles. One of them has shaved off the moustache that he has worn for the last thirty years, informing his wife that all his male work colleagues have told him how much better and younger he looks without it. (she begs to differ - not being accustomed to being confronted by his top lip).
So I agree with Rose. No matter which gender we are, we all have our ways of dealing with aging.

Happy New Year everyone from me too.