It’s easy to be brave and beautiful when you’re young. Bravery is easy because we usually didn’t understand the dangers and youthful boldness is programmed into our genetics. Beauty is easy because the glow of youth is in your skin and is resistant to the stupid things we do to ourselves.

It’s hard to be either as we get older. Bravery and boldness can fade in the hard won perspective and experience of age. Knowing that things don’t always turn out all right and that the good guys don’t always win get burned into our hearts. Beauty fades and the actions and circumstances of our lives begin to show their effects. Even your very temperament and personality eventually sculpt the bodies we live in.

Yes, the true test of bravery and beauty is to be able to hold on to either even as time tries to grind them out of you.