I grow old: an elder in training.(Column)

   I grow old ... I grow old ... 
   I shall wear white bottoms of my trousers 
   rolled. 
 
   Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to 
   eat a peach? 
   I shall wear white flannel trousers, and 
   walk upon the beach. 
   I have heard the mermaids singing, each 
   to each. 
 
   I do not think they will sing to me. 
 
   --T. S. Eliot. "'The Love Song of J. Alfred 
   Prufrock." 

In these oft-quoted lines, T. S. Eliot captires the uncertainty, the trepidation, and the invisibility that come with growing old in the postmodern world. My cousin Betz, a prairie woman,