Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Poem: The Purple Hat

Another interesting poem on growing old from the eyes of a woman. Good resource for a discussion on aging.

An idea I had was for the student to describe or to compose a poem on how they see themselves as they grow up from a baby, to a child and to teenage years.

-----------------------------------------------------

THE PURPLE HAT


Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.

Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.

Age 15: She looks at herself as the "Ugly Sister"-"Mom, I can't go to school looking like this!"

Age 20: She looks at herself and sees, "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but decides she's going out anyway.

Age 30: She looks at herself and sees, "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but decides she doesn't have time to fix it so she's going out anyway.

At 40: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"-but says, "At least I'm clean," and goes out anyway.

Age 50: She looks at herself, sees "I am", and goes wherever she wants to go.

Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the world.

Age 70: She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and enjoys life.

Age 80: Doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.

Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier.

30 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for posting, I couldn't remember where I'd seen this and was glad to find it again. Do you know the author? I find it charming, amusing and uplifting. Too many old gals quietly hate themselves just for being old in western culture…! We should remember to celebrate!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the compliment. I'm not the writer of this poem. If anyone knows who is the author of this poem, please do inform us.

      Delete
    2. Erma Bombeck and incorporates 'if I had my life over' - another thought provoking piece

      Delete
  2. My cousin and I are on our way to a boat trip, Purple hats in hand, we celebrating our age, who says we too old to have fun. 59 and 70. Grab your Purple hats Ladies and enjoy life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congratulations ladies. Whenever we see ladies purposefully wearing purple hats, they are celebrating life!

      Delete