GEENA & ANNETTE

I like Annette Bening -- whatever she "plays" always involves me and seems real. I like  Geena Davis -- whatever she plays involves me and seems real.

Both these women are over the Hollywood Star hill -- they're forty +  -- a loud age number that suggests that a woman is no longer ... What?

Geena, early 60's

Annette, late 50's

Looking at the photos closely, I see crows' feet, the center of forehead think wrinkle, indentations in their cheeks as they smile. They do not have young faces. Even so, if you saw either of them on the street, you'd excitedly stare and probably want to rush over and say "I'm a fan and I've loved your work for years."

I especially loved Geena the first time she holds up a store imitating the Brad Pitt character she slept with. I loved Annette in the scene where President Michael Douglas asks if she's nervous about sex, and she appears naked, except for wearing one of his shirts.

Burned in my mind is a vision of Geena, excited, bravely bold, and Annette, fearlessly humorously loving. There are other not young, over the hill actresses I love -- Sher, Shirley MacLaine, and just about anything Bette Davis did.

The Mount Everest of being beautiful, staying beautiful is a terrifying doomed ascent. I speak for myself, but also translate what's in the minds of many women who would love to be not aware, daily, hourly, of how they look whenever/wherever they see their reflection in a mirror -- in a bathroom, a window, a storefront, or a tablespoon. Yes, you can check the state of your lipstick, your mascara, or the shine on your nose in any piece of silverware.

Do women in cultures where old age is revered feel this way? I suspect they are aware the way I'm aware. It is a real realty.

Aging is dying. A plant dies; a human dies. Let this fact of life -- dying -- inspire you to use your time, more seconds and more and more seconds -- better-fully-richly.

Trying helps.