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Natalie Angier, from the New York Times review of Germaine Greer's book
The Change: "Ms. Greer talks about the chance that aging gives a woman [or a man]
to step outside the prison of the ego and its 'illusions of omnipotence and
perfectability,' and instead to rejoice in the abundance of the moment, to
walk out one fine day and suddenly see the 'great boil-up of cloud' and 'the
green snouts of the crocuses poking up through the snow.' She suggests that
the middle-aged woman [or man] take a cue from her newfound invisibility and
become invisible to herself, to shuck off at last her desire to please, her
endless obsession with her own skin, lips, breasts and buttocks, and to take
in the theater of life, 'to be agog, spellbound.'
"The boundaries of body and skull remain, of course, and we can never help
thinking of ourselves as the starring actors in the minor plays of our lives;
yet a truly wise actor learns to savor with calm delight the displays of
others on the stage. 'The discontent of youth passes when you realize that the
music you are hearing is not about you, but about itself,' Ms. Greer writes.
'Only when a woman [or a man] ceases the fretful struggle to be beautiful can
she turn her gaze outward, find the beautiful, and feed upon it."
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