I was thinking of posting this on the "best bike advice"-thread, but I felt it was getting a bit heated and this isn't directed at anyone in particular, just a spin-off.

Ok, so society's superficial norms tell us that young women are hot, older women aren't. That is annoying to most of us, since we can't avoid aging and it doesn't seem to apply to men, not as much at least. But why are we so obsessed about being hot in the first place? If at 40 or 50 or 60 you have a good career and/or a loving family and/or good friends or in general a good satisfying life, why should it bother you if you're not considered as smoking as when you were 25? Aren't we just buying into the whole "beauty rules the world"-idea?

What I love about both biking and climbing is that moves focus from what you look like to what you can do. It has the added bonus of making your body look better, but that's a side effect of being out there and DOING lots of stuff. Biking is an endurance sport, we can do this until we keel over from old age. Sure, I'm not thrilled about getting gray hair, wrinkles and a thicker middle, but the improvement I still can make in my own physical fitness, and the stuff this allows me to do, way outweighs this.

At work and running out of points, but if anyone wants to join in, feel free.