Aging in Love
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone, just before they got married, had the chance to see their beloved as an elderly person, and could honestly vow to that vulnerable, wrinkled, beautiful person that he or she would still be someone worthy of all their love, and would still have a devoted spouse by their side, loving them with all their honest imperfections and authentic sublimities?
In this video a young couple, soon to be married, agree to submit to makeup and costume changes that will allow them to see what each other might look like over the decades. These adorable and clearly in love people look at each other in their projected fifties, seventies and nineties, and see deep beauty and gratitude for the chance to glimpse what a long life together might look like, reflected in their partner’s face.
They muse about future children and grandchildren, and what sort of experiences they will live through to gain those wrinkles and white hairs, evidence of many years together. Their love for each other and for life shows through even in the aging process they submit to, giving a noble quality to their faces and bearing. If this is what getting old looks like (true love mirrored in the wise and weathered face of a lifelong friend and lover) then sign me up.
There’s something else profound that this video touches on: the fleeting nature of life, how one moment you’re young and before you know it you’re looking back at all the years that have passed by. As Frank Sinatra sings in “The September of My Years,” “One day you turn around and it’s summer/ Next day you turn around and it’s fall…”
