20 Comments
Apr 26, 2022Liked by Valerie Monroe

So much to tell you. I have set up a testicle tanning station in my front yard. With many rows of plastic chairs for the audience. The device is free to users but $25 for audience members.

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Finally, a safe place to discuss testicle tanning AND virtual grand parenting. Val, you contain multitudes. Can I put in a request for a future explainer on FaceTite? The thing Ireland Baldwin did to her neck? I feel bad about my waddle. What’s the over-under on this procedure? I am nervous about any surgery that has a trademark.

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Apr 27, 2022Liked by Valerie Monroe

If Akihiko Kondo can marry his virtual love Hatsune Miku, then the path to wedded bliss is clear for M and Monkey-Monkey!

Loved every word of your post. On the ever-fascinating topic of aging and how we engage with it, I found Paula Span’s The New Old Age article, “How Ageism Can Take Years Off Seniors’ Lives” in yesterday’s NY Times quite compelling. All about the impact of how we “feel” about our own aging.

The good news from researcher Becca Levy is that these feelings are “malleable. We can shift them.” So I will continue to put on a happy face and wear my sunscreen! And your mirror meditation certainly helps with shifting our perceptions in the right direction.

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Also it’s easier to actively “fix” than to “passively” accept. Part of our ethos as Americans is to charge forward…taking action feels like a valiant stand against growing older. It’s easier to get out of the insanity when you name it :)

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Val! "Come on up and sit on my wrinkled old knee." Maybe my favorite line on the Internet.

But seriously, I went back to your article "Thinking of Having Some 'Work' Done?..." it brought tears to my eyes just imagining doing this for myself. (NOT the work part, the tender, mirror-gazing part.) Somehow the idea of confronting our private vulnerability; our grief and tiny disappointments about being alive and the terrifying process of moving towards the END of being alive...is harder than just being cut open and re-arranged. Just, wow.

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Apr 26, 2022Liked by Valerie Monroe

Will do. But as my favorite substack columnist, you have a permanent front-row seat. Anytime.

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Apr 26, 2022Liked by Valerie Monroe

No to testicle tanner! We will probably get Trump nuts season!

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Apr 26, 2022Liked by Valerie Monroe

Can we all save our beautiful Portuguese soap packaging and send it to M and Monkey-Monkey as a wedding gift?

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