aging : Gay & Black Glossary

The aging gay man faces loss of status, good looks, strength, sexual prowess… These all give the ego a severe battering.

I am not the person to advise you. I handle aging quite poorly. I find the notion of sex with 60 year old men just as disgusting as I did when I was 15. I avoid going out in public. I see aging as something to be endured in return for being permitted to continue to engage in world politics. It seems every few months some new infirmity adds its insults and pain.

Book referral for Golden Men: The Power of Gay Midlife

	recommend book⇒Golden Men: The Power of Gay Midlife
	by	Harold Kooden	978-0-380-80443-6	paperback
	publisher	Harper
	published	2000-03-08
This book is a pep talk on why aging is not so bad. I did not find it convincing, but then I have a fairly advanced case of ageism. He makes the error of opening his book by condemning people who feel embarrassed and guilty about growing old, making it difficult for such a person to persist in reading. Yet these people are his intended audience.
Online bookstores carrying Golden Men: The Power of Gay Midlife abe books anz abe books.ca abe books.de amazon.ca amazon.de Chapters Indigo amazon.es Chapters Indigo eBooks iberlibro.com abe books.com abe books.fr amazon.com amazon.fr Barnes & Noble abe books.it Nook at Barnes & Noble amazon.it Kobo junglee.com Google play abe books.co.uk O’Reilly Safari amazon.co.uk Powells other stores
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It is not all gloom. If you tackle it the right way, this aging experience teaches you realise how shallow gay society is and how shallow human games are in general. It is all so arbitrary. You develop an inner sense of worth, quite independent of how others view you. This is a much firmer foundation. There is a great sense of relief and relaxation.

You also get a chance to laugh at your younger self, dragged about by nose by your hormones. Only in later years can you see how controlled, obsessive and unfree you were. You had no choices. You were drawn to totally inappropriate partners like a moth to a flame, even when intellectually you knew you were headed for disaster.

As you age, you use your head more. You can appreciate a wider range of people. Though in my own case, nostalgia is so intense. When you are young, it feel is if you will be young forever. When you are old, it feels as if you got to be young for just a few wonderful months. The years race by faster and faster at a clip unimaginable to the young. It seems you go to bed a young man and wake up the next morning an old one.