newwrinklethemovie

Living Out Loud

I wrote to best-selling author and lecturer Marianne Williamson the other day to see if I could interview her for my upcoming documentary New Wrinkle.  She recently wrote a book called the Age of Miracles about the need for a psychological and spiritual reframe in midlife.  I was happy to get an immediate reply from her that said she liked the project and wanted to participate. She even suggested that I talk to an actress friend of hers in Los Angeles.

It seems that there is a hunger for a new way of looking at aging — 150 million women baby boomers yearning for a sense of real power, a power that doesn’t come from turning back the clock.  I like what Tina Fey says about the dilemma facing today’s women: “You can have it all and be serious, but also, it’s great to get Botox, and you should be really skinny, but don’t be, but don’t not be.”  It’s crazy-making.

The more time women spend fighting their own bodies, the less they have to fight for anything else. Williamson says, “we are ultimately responsible for how we see ourselves, regardless of the horrible images that permeate our culture.  When we are truly aware of our spirited glory, a varicose vein or two is not that big a deal.”

In New Wrinkle I will introduce you to women who are not shrinking as they age but expanding.  One of those is film critic Jan Wahl.  People around the San Francisco Bay Area know her on TV as the lady with the crazy hats.  She says she will not give into the notion that she’s becoming invisible.  Wahl likes to say “I’m living out loud.”