Tuesday, November 29, 2011

My Power Rangers

As you know, I have this special group of friends that I like to call my Power Rangers.  That's not what they call themselves but I think they continue to be full of the most important kind of power imaginable.  And they're all over the place, hence the ranger part.

Of course I have other friends, even other very close friends, but these women hold a particular place in my life. 

It's hard to describe us.  But, strangely, none other than the outrageous Roseanne Bar wrote an article in the most recent Newsweek that makes me think of my Power Rangers.

She writes about life after menopause and how good it is.  Like:

Sometimes, as the months whip past now, like telephone poles from the window of a bullet train, I continue to realize how much of my life I spent firmly under the thumb of Mother Nature, that inscrutable Boss Lady.

A few years ago one of my Power Rangers wanted to use the word "Crone" to describe us.  I didn't like it.  But Roseanne Bar likes it. She says:

Depending on who's defining the word "crone," it can be a really wonderful gem of language.  Crone got saddled with the role of synonym for hag, and old grizzled woman who's often bitchy at best, malicious at worst........Luckily, intelligent women and some men, have begun returning the word to its rightful definition; an experienced, mature woman who's arrive on the north shore of the raging seas of this largely corrupt planet.

In other words, there's a lot that's good about getting older.  And my Power Rangers are still using their powers in a magnificent way for good.  As Bar sums up her article:

You don't need a young athletic body or piles of money to read some of the world's great books; or to soak up brilliant music and art; or to grow something beautiful in a little garden spot.  May your uterus remain relatively undisturbed during these, your glorious turban years!

I'm leaving now to go meet my Power Rangers for a birthday lunch.  I have a heavy heart this morning because another friend of mine, who just moved away so I can't see him, is dying.  I most likely won't share this news at the birthday celebration ....but the PRs will empower me anyway.


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