In the age that I am, in my entire adult life that I have been lobbying for reproductive freedom--why does it seem like we're going so far backwards?

What's the basis for that issue, for the freedom I have?

Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom.

One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.

There is something about the act of studying an unclothed body, as an artist does, that allows a person to appreciate it as pure form, regardless of the kinds of traits traditionally regarded as imperfections. In a figure drawing class, an obese woman's folds of flesh take on a kind of beauty. You can look at a man's shrunken chest or legs or buttocks with tenderness. Age is not ugly, just poignant.

We've been doing this for about a year now. When you get to a certain age, this really helps you out.