A ZUMBA Class With Beautiful Women

Tomorrow morning I will grab a cup of coffee, pull on a leotard and wrap a jeweled, jingly skirt around my hips, hop on my bicycle and head to the pavilion at the South Texas resort which I call home.  At the pavilion I will join 35 other ladies and some (brave) gentlemen for our thrice weekly ZUMBA class.  Do you do ZUMBA?  It is the latest aerobic and strength training program that is set to Latin rhythms and music.  For 50 minutes we will dance our way through one spicy routine after another.  Those jingly skirts will make a joyful noise while we laugh, sweat and push through the steps. 

            We come in all shapes and sizes.  We are not the hard bodied, flat stomached, firmed, groomed and frequently augmented girls that you see in the ZUMBA commercials on television.  We are real women, all, “of an age” and proudly fighting a private battle with age, attitude and infirmity.  We are also dangerous women:  beautiful, smart, and seasoned on some landmark fights with society and its arbitrary restrictions on us and ours.  We are the women who came to adulthood in the 60’s and 70’s and decided that our mother’s world was not quite good enough for us—or our daughters. 

            Week after week I have seen the women in those ZUMBA get better and stronger each session.   But the most important thing I see each week is that we have all chosen not to let age control the people we are.  My mother was not taking ZUMBA classes when she was 65.  Neither was she golfing, biking, bowling or playing tennis, all activities I take part in each week.  In my mother’s age, “growing old gracefully” was considered a virtue.  All of the women I know are quite willing to grow old, but age is going to have to catch up to us, because we are on the move. 

            That willingness to fight for the life we want comes quite naturally to my contemporaries.  We were the women who marched for racial and sexual equality.  We wanted a voice in shaping a world warped by segregation, Viet Nam and societal roles dictated by stereotype instead of merit.  We had seen the, “Leave it to Beaver” world of the Eisenhower era and decided it needed tweaking.  We took on some heavy lifting, not the least of it being moving other women out of their comfort zone and into action! 

            Now that we are entering the retirement phase of our life, it is not surprising that we have decided to take this bull by the horns as well.  Ageing may be mandatory, but fitness is optional.  We are taking control of our own health and quality of life.  Most of us quite smoking a long time ago (those of you who are still addicted, please take note, stop the filthy killers now while you can still save your lungs, complexion and a lot of money!).   We find some exercise that we like and do it faithfully.  We make the decision to have fun: karaoke, talent shows, music, dancing.  We keep our minds busy with classes, book clubs, cards and endless talk with friends.  We give back to the community.  We vote.  When I go to my ZUMBA class tomorrow, I am going to be surrounded by women who are infinitely more beautiful than the ones on television, women who decided decades ago that life was much more than a spectator sport.  God, how I love those ladies!

            Stay fit, stay involved and keep the faith.