Friday, December 26, 2008

Thank You Ms. Kitt...

I pay far too much attention to the youth oriented television and the mainstream media. As a result, I finding myself struggling to shed my belief that life ends with 40. I have mentioned this in passing to some of my older friends who seem baffled and give me assurances that 40 is where life starts to get interesting. This last year, I had been seeking role models, my age and older, to dispel my apparently misguided beliefs abouts turning 40.

I have been an admirer of Eartha Kitt, since I first saw her in old Batman episodes. As a child, I did not see many Black faces on TV and certainly not gorgeous woman who could hold there own. My mother introduced me to older movies with women such as Lena Horne and Eartha Kitt and I look to them as proof positive that Black women were beautiful. ( I should add the women in my family are stunning, but little old me would not believe anything unless I saw it on the screen).

Now as I watch these women "living the hell out of life", well into their 80's and beyond, I am reminded that true inspiration (for little black girls and 39 year old women) is found not on TV, but in the amazing lives of real women, like the amazing Eartha Kitt.

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