It all started with a car. My old SUV died and I chose a sport two door roadster. I don’t remember the last time I felt so selfish in choosing something that is going to be hard to share with my grown kids.

A smile was on my friend’s face when he saw the car and asked: does someone have a midlife crisis? I just smiled back. I was puzzled and reflected…. really?? But I turned 60 last year. We all know that 50 is midlife, I am well past it.

The definition for AGE is: “a period of human life, measured by years from birth, usually marked by a certain stage or degree of mental or physical development and involving legal responsibility and capacity” and if we use it as verb to age means to grow old as “she is aging rapidly” (I hope not) or “the wine ages slowly” or “fear aged him overnight”.(The last definitions touches on age as number.)

When we approach 60 we are treated as OLD. Is it Ageism? Ageism is defined as a discrimination against persons of a certain age group or tendency to regard older person as debilitated, unworthy of attention, or unsuitable for employment.

I love numbers and I always try to find hidden meanings. In my twenties I went to University, married and had kids. In my thirties I raised a family. Family raising lasted till almost 50. I saw my job as wife/mother/organizer/volunteer/interior designer/chef/cook/party-planner /artist/collector. None of these were paid in the monetary sense but were appreciated by my family and friends who participated or enjoyed the results of all these interests. In the world we live in there is not much appreciation for us/ women who devote half of their life to the family. The problem arose when my kids grew and started their own life. What am I going to do next? Shall I get a job? Do I want to get involved with volunteer projects? Shall I go back to school? A lot of exciting options but I am still faced with a society who looks at my grey hair and sees OLD.

Just writing this word makes my skin crawl. We need to find a new definition for those of us between 60-70+. We are at the “next prime” as a friend said. We need to find a word that will encompass positivity. A word that a 30 or 40 year old will say: “Whoa this 60 year old is incredible!”.

We need to ask ourselves: how old do we feel? Do we care about our chronological age? If the people around me consider me “old” what does it mean?

I invite your comments. Let me know your thoughts. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what matters is the attitude. Our population is growing and we are living longer. A Rocking chair is not the only way to express our vitality.

I will start this post with an unpublished post from last year:

“It’s April and although they say:”April showers brings May flowers” the sky is grey and it is hard to believe that we will ever get some sun and that the buds will come out from the frozen ground.  To lift me out of my melancholic mood it was time to find some art that will bring flowers into the world.   The Brooklyn Museum has two great shows: “Kehinde Whiley” show which is called “A New Republic” and Basque’s “The Unknown notebook”.

It’s April 2016, and you’d think nothing changed.  It’s like in the movie, “Groundhog Day”. Each April we think the weather will warm up but NOOOOO, we need a winter coat when venturing outdoors. Storm King sculpture park opens its door April 6th as one of the signs of change. Like daffodils coming from the ground.

Museums open the season with interesting shows. The Met at Bauer which opened at the “old” Whitney building with a show called “Unfinished”. It’s an historical review of works that the artist left deliberately unfinished  or let us the viewer decide left to our imagination.

Michelangelo work is divine, the image is so angelic.

Andy Warhol leaves us wondering whether we will get a complete guitar image if we just follow the numbers.

Picasso lets us wonder if his painting of man gazing at a semi nude  model is indeed a partial work or he really intended it to be partly penciled in and to think the it was painted on a dish towel.

The Moma opened with two shows Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty

Degas is familiar with his ballerinas but he is a master using a monotype print technique. We can see the phases of the work, first it’s the black and white drawing and then the adding of color. Degas made these monotypes in 1818 as a way of searching for a new way to capture new life. You can see that what’s important is the process of innovation and less the finished product.

The other artist that is  having a retrospective and  was unfamiliar to me is :

Marcel Broodthaers: A Retrospective. A “forest” of palm trees welcomes the viewer. Marcel is Belgian. He takes us through his mind and gives us a glimpse at his thoughts. His works were created at the time when other artists did Pop and Minimalistic Art. He turns to poetry and ask “what is art?”. His answer is whimsical and playful. He plays with modules/eggs as objects that hide something. He pays homage to Magritte’s pipe and the folk tale of the raven and the fox. He created an installation that one feels like walking into the fable, surrounded by the words that describe it. He continues creating his own museum. His art is apolitical and poetic. A must see.

The Jewish Museum brings lots of color in the form of Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History; Isaac Mizrahi fashion designs from the 70’s and 80’s. One can imagine wearing these today. His fabric boards which welcome the visitor let us enter his world and we can feel as though we might be designing the fabric.

The weather continues to play tricks on me. The sun is out but you still need to wear a winter coat and add a scarf and gloves. Next I will be walking in and out of the galleries in Chelsea so hopefully it will get warmer…

It takes four hours from Rabat to Marrakesh. The road goes through Casablanca and what a better way to pass the time then to watch the movie Casablanca!  As Rick was saying goodbye to Ilsa we entered the red city. The first stop when we arrived to Marrakesh was Jardin de Majorelle or as it is known: YSL garden. In 1923 Jacques Majorelle decided to live in Marrakesh, he purchased a palm grove and asked the architect Paul Sinoir to build an artist studio in Art Deco style. In 1980 YSL acquired the garden and restored it and installed a Berber museum in it. The “Majorelle Blue” with green palm trees and cactus cast a magic spell when you enter  the garden. It is the perfect first step into this mysterious city.

We continued with a tour of the mellah and visited the only synagogue left inside the walls . There used to be 35 synagogues. As the community shrunk they closed. We were told that there is a daily minyan.

When I found out that the Marrakesh Biennale will take place during our trip I booked a tour. Their Biennale is spread among five sites. We visited two of them which were located in old palaces. I will write about the art in a different post. As it is Friday we got ready for shabbat and joined the Ohayon family for Kabalat Shabbat.

Marrakesh is known for palaces and magnificent hotels. We visited the Mamounia hotel and had a cooking class at La Madison Arab . I  know there are many more palaces and grant hotels to explore and we only scratched the surface.

Saturday morning we drove towards the Atlas Mountains to visit a Berber village. The guide explained that that the Jews arrived to Morroco as merchants and settled in small villages all around the mountains. These are humble dwellings. The houses were build from mud. We visited Zohara who demonstrated the art of making Moroccan tea. As a tea lover I found it fascinating as she did not use any measuring but only her hands and estimated the timing by the color.

The medina in Marrakesh starts with the Djemaa El Fena  Square. Water sellers, fortune tellers, snake charmers and henna ladies welcome the visitor even before entering the shouk. I was looking for the traditional tea pot which I found and got some glasses. I will practice the Moroccan tea serving with the mint from my garden.

The trip is almost over. It’s been an incredible journey. This country is mysterious  yet magical, complex and intriguing.

There is more to explore so maybe I will be back…

6AM and we are on the way to the train that will take us to southern Rajasthan-the land of kings.
As a matter of fact we landed in Mumbai and went north to Jaipur which is the capital .
The landscape changes, there are no green fields of wheat or yellow flowers we saw from Agra to Jaipur but rather desert like sceneary, some trees but mostly dry land.
As we get closer the white magnificence of the palaces appears.
We drive through narrow streets up and down alleys towards our hotel which sits on the lake.
As we enter The Jagat Niwas Palace we think we are on the set of the improved Marigold hotel ( some of us saw Judi Densh in Jaipur filming the sequal).
We go on a boat ride, see the palace , unfortunately it is closed as the prince is getting married tomorrow.
The mountains around reminds of Italy, There is the summer palace which sits in the middle of the lake but alas it is converted into a fancy hotel.
We have a Rajasthan diner on the roof of another hotel by the lake looking at the palace.
I am not a big fan of Indian food but there is not much choice so I tried the daal which is basically lentil soup in yellow orange sauce, basmati rice, paneer with spinach and some spicy vegetables, desert is these round sugary balls .
As we leave we try the mix of fennel and sugar to cleanse our palate, it’s actually good, does the trick.