I Want To Not Care

So the other day, I was walking into the locker room at the community center. A senior water exercise class had just finished, and I could hear laughter and chatter coming from the room even before I opened the door. But as I pushed the door open, an unusual sight greeted me.

Wowsers. Um. Well.....

A '70 something, quite chubby lady had chosen a locker directly across from the front door. She was completely naked and was wrapping her hair in a towel after taking a shower. I happened to walk in just as she was bending over to position the towel, her backside prominently displayed squarely in front of the door.

Yes. I was mooned in the locker room.

After I put my eyeballs back into their sockets and looked around, I realized that this lady was not alone. There was a whole pack of them. Naked. Laughing. Chatting. Casually pulling off their swimming suits or pulling on their underpants. Not one of them had a bra on, and none of them had ever had breast implants. Obviously. None of them looked even remotely like the tanned, svelte seniors in the AARP ads.

AND THEY DIDN'T CARE.

Whoa. I quickly chose a locker, ditched my stuff, locked it up and escaped as hastily as I could while keeping my eyes on the floor. The ladies didn't even notice that I had been there, I'll bet. I could hear them continue to chatter and banter halfway down the hall as I headed out to the exercise area.

This was interesting food for thought as I began walking around the track. I mulled the experience over for awhile and finally came to the conclusion that I certainly wasn't prepared to walk in on a gang of naked elderly women. But that I should definitely learn something from them: THEY DIDN'T CARE. They didn't have perfect bodies. Probably never have. Parts of their anatomy had obviously shifted in major ways. But THEY DIDN'T CARE. They were laughing and having a grand time and THEY DIDN'T CARE who saw them or what others thought about their time-worn bodies.

I am so not there. Yet.

But I want to be. When I'm in my seventies and beyond, I want more than anything to be casually hanging out in the community center locker room in my birthday suit, laughing with my friends. Not caring who saw me. But loving life.