RON PALEY, the city's foremost jazz musician, graciously donated his piano-playing Sunday night in the Provencher Room of the Hotel Fort Garry.
But the real stars were 12 bare naked ladies.
Liz Wolf: ‘struggle to accept my aging face’
Although, for this occasion, the women who bared themselves, body and soul, for The Free Press calendar The Art of Aging Gracefully were all suitably dressed.
Which, of course, isn't the case in the calendar, a classy limited-edition publication which is selling quickly at McNally Robinson Book Sellers and Vita Health Food stores around the city. Oh yes, and at The Free Press, and Victoria Hospital, whose Mature Women's Centre is the calendar's chosen charity.
I knew what the intent of the calendar was when I dreamed it up last year at this time.
To celebrate the beauty of woman 50 and over.
Of course, as men get older, society allows them to retain a certain romantic advantage over woman of a similar age.
And I don't think that's fair or right.
So the idea was to empower older woman and demonstrate that they should be considered just as attractive.
That life doesn't end at 50.
Sometimes living actually begins.
But even I couldn't have imagined the profound impact the experience would have on many of the women who posed for the calendar.
Especially, Ms. April, Liz Wolf.
With her daughters and distinguished, white-haired husband Julian looking on, Liz got up and expressed what the experience has meant to her.
"Each of us had a different and unique reason for responding to Gord's call for this calendar," she began. "My reason was, like the other women's, deeply personal. Initially it had to do with the incredible struggle to accept my aging face and no longer concave belly.
Trite, some might say, but very real.
"It also had to do with having lived my life as a 'good girl' who at times desperately wanted to bust loose and do something wild or naughty. Something with panache. Something that might even invite tongue wagging or disapproval. Posing for the calendar offered that.
"But it offered much more than I had anticipated.
"The day that we did our group photo was an important day for me. I sat nude with eleven gorgeous and emotionally evolved women. I saw wrinkles and sags, creases and bulges. And for the first time, an aging woman's body was beautiful to me."
Then Liz got to the punch line.
"I had been thinking about having a face lift next year for my 60th.
"I decided then that I could not.
"I would not.
"I would be selling out if I did.
"It was a powerful moment for me
"These were REAL women. Each of them had avoided the temptations of the eternal youth purveyors, the sellers of unnatural thinness and cosmetic surgery.
"These women were feisty, with deeply held convictions about maturing womanhood. Each had taken risks, had displayed vitality and had bid goodbye to conventional aging limitations. I was connected to an energy and a beauty that is too seldom found in our youth-oriented world. To each of you, thank you for your incredible poise, grace and authenticity."
That says it all.
Except, perhaps, for this post script about the other star of the show. The last time I saw Ron Paley he was leaving the Provencher Room with lipstick kisses all over his face.
Obviously some of the calendar girls had shown their appreciation for Ron's donating his time.
See what I mean about older men.
gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
