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Show Kathleen Norris Says: Women Dodge Thought of Aging (Bell Syndicate WNU Service.) kern Whatever she is when she is oldand to her forty-five is old she knows she II hale it. So why worry about it? By KATHLEEN NORRIS DON'T be one of those women to whom only beauty, money and a good digestion are important in life. Don't be one of the millions who consider eating and drinking, amusements and parties, flirtations and gay companies, smooth hair and smooth skin the real objects and aims of existence. All these things are fun, in mild doses. But there is only one companion who goes with you to the end, and that's yourself. Find that companion, cultivate her, give her a taste for the things that last, before it is top late. Women don't think enough about this. When they are young they feel that age never will come, and when it does come it finds them utterly ut-terly unprepared. These ripe years, which ought to be the very best of nil o t-r-1 L-tvnm i; 1, ii i . 1 ship. She has been daughter, wife, mother, housekeeper for a long quarter of a century. And thes have been happy years, proud years, years full of the joys of trips and frocks, parties and flattery and self-confidence. self-confidence. But they have vanished now. And now comes HER time; the time when she can be most truly and wholly herself. Her small house is a veritable kingdom with its garden, gar-den, its dog or its cats, its visits from adored grandchildren, its quieter qui-eter visits from old friends. In planning plan-ning trips, in club work and charities, chari-ties, in easy hours and easy dressing dress-ing and games of dominoes or crib-bage crib-bage or backgammon with a few tried and true neighbors and friends, are real pleasure. If the companion of her youth is still beside her, all this felicity is doubled. But even if he is not, rich and ripe and useful living is still hers. Tame and Uninteresting. Now, unfortunately, this paradise of the middle years sounds extremely extreme-ly dull, to youth. It sounds tame and uninteresting to the last degree Youth never will change ideals with age; it hates the thought. Age is no more convinced that it never will be youth than is youth sure it never can grow old. And so many a woman who could be planning now for her later years draws away in repugnance from the thought of them. Whatever she is when she's old-and to her 45 is old-she knows she'll hate it. So why think about it? tin... -: , ' kucui uie a uiunaerooit. They've never considered the financial finan-cial side of them. They've never considered the social or domestic side of them. They've never considered con-sidered the moral side of them. Twenty-Five Tears Ago. To be sure, 25 years ago Peggy married gaily enough, leaving her own father and mother alone. And when that mother was widowed, Peggy shed dutiful tears for her lost father and felt quite sorry for mother, moth-er, who was immediately plunged into money difficulties. But all this doesn't affect Peggy personally at alL SHE never thinks of herself as fifty, and alone. SHE never will be widowed, her one child married, her entire provision for old age a small life insurance policy. When these inevitable conditions arise in her own case Peggy is shocked and despairing. All her plans have included herself as important, im-portant, attractive, and protected by John. But now her daughter is married mar-ried and gone, her husband dead, she must give up her home, and hi her bitterness and loss she feels that there is nothing left. She very probably sinks into the Umbo of those unhappy lonely little women who live only in their child's life-complaining, life-complaining, remembering, grieving. .."j um ner character to desire de-sire what is true and lasting; why search into her own soul and develop de-velop its miraculous resources? Why deny herself and the children su perfluous luxuries and extravagances extrava-gances now, to gain the superlative comfort of financial security for ner 'd "ge? r 'orm a taste for flne books, for language study, for gar! fne,mrng; fr j"7 ne ' a h"ndred r? ,1 "nd avocans, when to day there are movies and beauty parlors and flirtations and nigW clubs to fill her time? g What is the answer? Ask yourself why. Answer Is Apparent. try in which the eve, J m' could see nothtafc7 to 'wWer? nW Burden on Others. Instead of having that child depend de-pend upon her, and half envy mother's moth-er's independence, freedom, high spirits, Peggy becomes a burden upon the younger family. Her conversation con-versation becomes a long dreary recital re-cital of what glories and possessions she once had. She cannot sufficiently sufficient-ly reiterate the trials, the dismal-ness dismal-ness of age; when you get to her age, she says, you might as well be dead, and goodness knows she often wishes she were dead. Now, since you taoWi you of 25, 30, 40, that this time must come, why not prepare for it why not defeat it of its horrors' It can be the most serene, the most triumphant trium-phant period of your whole life It can be a time of harvest, rather than of famine. Older Women Different. r or m me years after 45 a woman can be herself, express herself, live her own life as she never can in younger years. No girl is so use-ess, use-ess, so defeated and unhappy a3 the girl who tries to be independ! ent In rushing off to Paris, or into some unknown field of endeavor she only proves to herself that she' has Ujrown away the honest beginnings ot life, refused to play the game by rule and beside making herself TJ. diculous, has made it practically irn. possible to get back to a real start With the older woman it is diff ent. She has served her apprentice ' Prepare to make maT eh "" testis giage; cultivate i I few rl l lan' must make that 1o,, e"ds Wno Middle age ' h 7 With long peaceful holidav a be a iday-not by any I?: A USeful h'-iday. h'-iday. But.':."'". woman who ha, d n "hich ' are of living in th h" hon' canflndendcs?7"ars absorbing occupation. r0USand Peace of spirit ' comP'ete f,80methingworU |