One woman, one vote part II (not yet...)

I just cannot yet write this post about the elections because things really did not turn out the way I (we all, people that I know and talk to) expected. Trump will be our President and I can barely bear to write it down a couple of weeks later. So I will tell about my experience working the day at the polling station, meeting some lovely (and less so) people all day, developing temporary friendships with my co-workers...but not just yet.

Today though I had an experience worthy of note. Thanksgiving at my in laws was wonderful and I admired, as always, my 90-year-old mother-in-law's stamina and ability to work and host an entire meal for 17 people (!) without complaining once and making it seem like she was someone way younger. She is still very lucid and strong and "with it" and I love hearing her stories and take on current affairs. One thing she repeatedly tells me about is that inside she feels like a woman in her late thirties with four kids, really busy and constantly concerned with the well-being of her children. This is the internal image she has of herself, she says, and then she looks at herself in the mirror in the morning and finds someone else, to her surprise: an old lady she doesn't recognize.

This is true of every human, I suppose, there is an internal awareness of identity and age you choose and feel mots comfortable with and it has nothing to do with "reality". Tonight we had dinner at a nice restaurant, Freek's Mill, with David and Zazi and I chatted to the  nice twenty-something hostess girl about her dress, the restaurant, whatever. All along I acted like we were peers and her "very cool" thrift store recommendation was something I might actually explore. Then I got home and looked at myself in the mirror and I realized I was like my mother in law. I just picked this age I feel comfortable with that has nothing to do with reality. I will never go to that thrift store and I am not her peer. And that is just fine.