Aging with Grace

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

Oscar Wilde

Many years ago, I was walking through the Christkindl Market, in Fredericksburg, Texas, when I came across a woman selling handmade quilts. I noticed this quilt, in the photo, buried in the back of her stall. When I said I was interested in buying it, she raised her eyebrow and said,”Honey, you don’t want that old thing. Take a look at these pretty, new, quilts I just sewed”. The thing was, I did want that old quilt. After I convinced her this was the quilt I wanted, she sold it to me and I left happy.

Many years ago, when I started out in retail, I worked in the fashion jewelry department of a landmark, local, department store. Every so often an elderly lady would come in. She always had the same request. She would look me in the eye, unblinking, and ask to see my prettiest necklace. After my first encounter with this formidable lady, I knew how this was going to go. She would not answer questions about what she was looking for. She wanted to see the prettiest necklace, period. I would take one necklace after another out of the case and her response was always the same. “That’s not your prettiest necklace”, she would tell me. In all the time I tried to help her, I has never able to find the prettiest necklace for her.

So, back to, it’s relative. I believe what makes us interesting as human beings is that no two of us are alike. Each of us has their own ideas about what is valuable, beautiful or worth having. There is no right or wrong, just a difference of opinion.