May and December
This post is about love and age and not a calendar. Are you familiar with the term “May-December Couples”? That refers to couples with a sizable age difference, usually thirty or more years.
We all seem to snicker when we read about such things, which I did for a moment while reading the article that made me think of this today, but the older I get the less I snicker. I think it is perfectly fine. Age shouldn’t matter when it comes to love and connection, right? I love the idea – of course I do! My ego loves the idea that I could get involved with someone thirty years younger than me. My question is this: why would a twenty-four year-old woman get romantically involved with a fifty-four-year-old man? I don’t think there is anything wrong with that; I just don’t see it from the woman’s perspective. There might naturally be some perspective differences relating to music or those “where were you when such and such happened” questions, but there doesn’t have to be any other issue. Each couple is unique. Of course there can be issues with what other people think of such a relationship. That can be more divisive than any real issue between a man and a woman separated in age by decades.
It seems there are many celebrities in May-December romances. Examples: Harrison Ford (69) and Calista Flockhart (47), Michael Douglas (67) and Catherine Zeta-Jones (42), Neil Diamond (71) and Katie McNeil (41), Steven Tyler (64) and Erin Brady (39), Celine Dion ($$) and Rene Angelil (70), Larry King (78) and Shawn South Wick (52), Rod Stewart (67) and Penny Lancaster (41), Chuck Norris (72) and Gena O’Kelley (44), David Hasselhoff (59) and Hayley Roberts (31), Lee Majors (72) and Faith Cross (38) (there is a “bionic man” punch line in that one), Woody Allen (76) and Soon-Yi (41), James Woods (65) and Ashley Madison (26), Clint Eastwood (81) and his wife Dina (56), Hugh Hefner (86) and … well that one is just creepy. OK, so those all involve older men and younger women, but it goes the other way too: Susan Sarandon (65) and Johathan Bricklin (33).
I mostly noted those with twenty five years or more, but there are plenty more in the lower twenty-year difference range. What’s wrong with that? Some people find love late in life, some women are attracted to power, status, security and confidence; some older men are still young in every way but the real number (Chuck Norris?). Sometimes older people are referred to as “young at heart” and some younger people are thought to have an “old soul.” In my opinion, the real number is much less important than the connection two people have, in mind, soul, spirit and heart.
If I were ever in a May-December relationship, which is not all that likely by the way, I guess I’d be the December. But I prefer to think of myself as a September or October. Where are you on that spectrum? And how does that compare with where other people think you are?
We all seem to snicker when we read about such things, which I did for a moment while reading the article that made me think of this today, but the older I get the less I snicker. I think it is perfectly fine. Age shouldn’t matter when it comes to love and connection, right? I love the idea – of course I do! My ego loves the idea that I could get involved with someone thirty years younger than me. My question is this: why would a twenty-four year-old woman get romantically involved with a fifty-four-year-old man? I don’t think there is anything wrong with that; I just don’t see it from the woman’s perspective. There might naturally be some perspective differences relating to music or those “where were you when such and such happened” questions, but there doesn’t have to be any other issue. Each couple is unique. Of course there can be issues with what other people think of such a relationship. That can be more divisive than any real issue between a man and a woman separated in age by decades.
It seems there are many celebrities in May-December romances. Examples: Harrison Ford (69) and Calista Flockhart (47), Michael Douglas (67) and Catherine Zeta-Jones (42), Neil Diamond (71) and Katie McNeil (41), Steven Tyler (64) and Erin Brady (39), Celine Dion ($$) and Rene Angelil (70), Larry King (78) and Shawn South Wick (52), Rod Stewart (67) and Penny Lancaster (41), Chuck Norris (72) and Gena O’Kelley (44), David Hasselhoff (59) and Hayley Roberts (31), Lee Majors (72) and Faith Cross (38) (there is a “bionic man” punch line in that one), Woody Allen (76) and Soon-Yi (41), James Woods (65) and Ashley Madison (26), Clint Eastwood (81) and his wife Dina (56), Hugh Hefner (86) and … well that one is just creepy. OK, so those all involve older men and younger women, but it goes the other way too: Susan Sarandon (65) and Johathan Bricklin (33).
I mostly noted those with twenty five years or more, but there are plenty more in the lower twenty-year difference range. What’s wrong with that? Some people find love late in life, some women are attracted to power, status, security and confidence; some older men are still young in every way but the real number (Chuck Norris?). Sometimes older people are referred to as “young at heart” and some younger people are thought to have an “old soul.” In my opinion, the real number is much less important than the connection two people have, in mind, soul, spirit and heart.
If I were ever in a May-December relationship, which is not all that likely by the way, I guess I’d be the December. But I prefer to think of myself as a September or October. Where are you on that spectrum? And how does that compare with where other people think you are?
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