Advanced Style’s Ari Seth Cohen in conversation with 91 year old Ilona Royce Smithkin, in this blog post Give Joy, Get Joy, following a video where Ilona talks about differences in people, perfectionism being a waste of time, and then of course, the most interesting part to me- her body and daily pain.
Cohen: “Now sometimes you feel pain, or you don’t feel good.. what do you do about that?… You seem like you fight it everyday..”
Smithkin: “Yes, everyday something else hurts when you get older. Yes, it is a fight but also you can coax yourself and you can amuse yourself. I tell myself funny stories, I make myself sort of amused about this thing. I talk to my body, I say ‘Whats the matter with you? I’m so nice to you. Why do you have to hurt me? Stop that hurting.’ If it does or doesn’t [work] at least I have a relationship with my body, you know. At this stage, as you get older, it turns around… your mind is a friend of your body, it caters to your body. When you’re young, your body caters to your mind.”
