Interesting afternoon at MOAD (Museum of the African Diaspora) in San Francisco ...

It had been advertised as the first in a series of teas for women; in this case to celebrate a new book, "Wise Talk Wild Women," dealing with the positive aspects of aging. That should have been my kind of tea, right? Wrong. These were women just entering their 60's and trying to deal with it honestly and directly and for the benefit of Boomers who would follow.

During the course of the presentation by these two lovely African American professional women, I learned that there were " ... 3 waves of Boomers; those just over 40, those in their 50's, and the frontrunners; those in their early 60's." And here I sat among them having expected that the afternoon would be relevant to me and my life. In the course of their presentation I suddenly remembered with a start that I am the mother of 3 Boomers! I'd either missed my appropriate tea, or, by now my crowd has been thinned out drastically from natural causes -- leaving teas behind for the young.

Were these women holding their "Aging Tea" far too early, or had I just stayed stage center too long? I truly didn't know, but I found myself desperately struggling to restrain the impulse to exit giggling!

The exhibition of photographs of lovely maturing women taken from the book, and the marvelous setting of the museum (where I'd just renewed my membership) weren't enough to dispel the feeling that I may have "... stayed too long at the fair," and that there was little I could add to this gathering without seeming to be trying to upstage those who'd come together to ponder aging in a positive way. I've already aged but have never lost the sense of aging as a natural progression of living a life. Beside that, the wisest thing I might have added was the knowledge that my only real advantage was that I know how more life stories have turned out than anyone in that room!

But maybe that wasn't enough. I left quickly after finishing my tea and the good ladies ended their public conversation to an appreciative audience trying to be happy to be post menopausal.

Not sure what to do with that, but I'll figure it out.