Saturday, 06 May 2023 03:29

I just turned 60, but I still feel 22 - Margaret Renki

Rate this item
(0 votes)

I was already in college before I finally understood that my entire life had overlapped with second-wave feminism, a force that transformed American culture without so much as registering on a certain young woman in Alabama. All my life I had been stepping through open doors, it turned out, blithely unaware of the vision and sacrifice and passionate persistence of the women who had opened those doors for me.

Once I understood that, I also understood that I wouldn’t want to have landed on this planet a single moment earlier than I did.

A woman born in Lower Alabama in 1961 has little use for nostalgia. Go back to the “good old days” when women were limited to professions like education or nursing and little else? Back to a time when the opportunities available to Black and brown people, and to Black and brown women especially, were even more profoundly limited? No, thank you very much.

The only trouble with being born in 1961 is that in 2021 you will turn 60, something I did last week. It’s very strange to persist in feeling 22, even as every mirror — and every storefront window and polished elevator door — reveals the truth. Sixty is the point at which people must admit they are no longer middle-aged.

Lately it’s been dawning on me that I would not want to have been born even one minute later than 1961, either. Last week I mentioned this new thought to a friend, and her response was immediate, as though she’d already had it herself: “Because we won’t have to live through the cataclysm?”

Exactly.

Well, no, not exactly. On the days when headlines are full, yet again, with firestorms and catastrophic flooding and biodiversity collapse and endless pandemic and a depressingly effective disinformation campaign to deny the climate emergency — on those days, yes. Absolutely yes. On those days I am glad to be 60 because it means I almost certainly won’t live to witness the cataclysm that is coming if humanity cannot change its ways in time.

But that’s not the way I think on most days. On most days I am simply grateful for the 60 years I’ve had.

 

New York Times

May 30, 2025

Nigeria's $3bn fashion drain: How import dependence undermines local textile industry

Nigeria's fashion sector is hemorrhaging billions of dollars annually due to overwhelming reliance on imported…
June 02, 2025

Afenifere blasts Tinubu: ‘Midterm report shows woeful failure, economic deforms, and rising despair’

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has issued a scathing midterm assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s…
June 01, 2025

Her daughter was taken and sent abroad - 44 years later, they found each other

The last memory Han Tae-soon has of her daughter as a child is in May…
May 31, 2025

Tools made of whale bones reveal inventiveness of prehistoric people

Artifacts found at archeological sites in France and Spain along the Bay of Biscay shoreline…
June 02, 2025

Boko Haram IED blast kills 9 in Borno, gunmen abduct bus passengers in Benue

Nigeria witnessed two separate but deadly attacks over the weekend, underscoring the persistent insecurity plaguing…
June 02, 2025

What to know after Day 1194 of Russia-Ukraine war

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Russia and Ukraine step up the war on eve of peace talks On…
June 02, 2025

Opportunities and challenges unveiled: How AI revolutionizes education and mental health support

Terence Ma Tin Shu Play time helps both kids and adults in prevention and healing…
May 13, 2025

Nigeria's Flying Eagles qualify for World Cup after dramatic win over Senegal

Nigeria's U-20 national football team, the Flying Eagles, have secured their place at the 2025…

NEWSSCROLL TEAM: 'Sina Kawonise: Publisher/Editor-in-Chief; Afolabi Ajibola: IT Manager;
Contact Us: [email protected] Tel/WhatsApp: +234 811 395 4049

Copyright © 2015 - 2025 NewsScroll. All rights reserved.