Sarnia de la Maré FRSA Author, Musician, Artist

  Vanity and Ageing: Why Some People Fight Time and Others Make Peace With It Welcome to Elderescence Academy — reflections on growing older with curiosity, creativity, and calm. Ageing is one of the few experiences that every human being shares, yet the ways people respond to it vary enormously. Some individuals meet the passing of time with determination. They exercise discipline over their appearance, invest in skincare, hair treatments, aesthetic procedures, and sometimes surgery. They aim to preserve a version of themselves that feels familiar — a face, a body, an image that reflects the vitality they still feel within. Others take a very different path. They allow the changes of time to appear openly. Hair turns grey, skin softens, lines deepen, and the body shifts its shape and rhythm. They may care for themselves well, but they do not attempt to resist the visible signs of age. These two responses are often presented as opposites — as if one represents vanity and the other ...

 In this chapter of Elderescence , Sarnia de la Maré explores how sensation changes after midlife — including increased sensitivity to texture, sound, temperature, and pace. The essay reframes ageing not as sensory decline, but as refinement, arguing that subtle pleasures become more meaningful as the body becomes a finer, more attentive instrument. Topics include ageing and the nervous system, sensory sensitivity, pleasure after midlife, embodied intelligence, and rethinking the ageing body in contemporary health culture. A full transcript of the essay is available for listeners who prefer to read alongside the audio. Chapter 2 The Sensory Body After Midlife There is a persistent myth about ageing that insists the senses dull with time. That touch becomes blunted, sound fades, pleasure weakens, and the body gradually withdraws from the world of sensation. Yet for many people, the opposite is true. What changes after midlife is not the ability to feel, but the nature of feel...