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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.

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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.

33 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!

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    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.

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

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  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.

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

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