Nancy's Musings

Everyone ages. Okay, everybody but [insert your favorite male celebrity here] ages. Our culture values youth. If the media is any judge, women are most attractive at somewhere between 18 and 22 (well, 14-18 with heavy makeup and air-brushing), with some variation for individual preferences. I suspect that men are probably at their best between 27 and 35. According to this article by Discovery, the difference is much broader between the sexes. Where men continue to favor women under 21, women's favored age ages with them. I have a slightly less cynical theory. It might be wishful thinking. My theory is that there is a difference between men who age while they are in love and men who age while they are single. Because I believe - I hope, I guess - that real love can overcome that desire for the barely legal. When you age with a person, when they see you every day and when you know where each of the lines on their face came from, and what each silver hair means. When you s...

Agency I define as our ability and responsibility to make decisions. Or the decision not to make a decision. My personality type especially holds Agency as a key concept, but I also find it essential for my theological worldview. The other side of this value is the demonization of anything that attempts or appears to infringe on agency. This makes life as a human and citizen very complicated, because Law* and Agency are an uncomfortable pairing. Legislative theory is not my problem today. For once. Several years ago I attended what turned out to be an extended and insidious sales pitch. For three days I sat and listened to a motivational speaker, trying desperately to glean some kind of solid or useful information while filtering out the unbearable weight of marketing nonsense. Have you ever read Going Postal ? The main character, Moist von Lipwig, is a grifter, forger, and all-around criminal, and the thing that makes him most upset as the plot (and he) progresses is that he t...