Welcome to Jim Duzak's Quote & Comment!

"Age does not protect us from love, but love to some extent protects us from age".
(Jeanne Moreau)

I can't think of a better quote to inaugurate a blog dedicated to issues of mid-life marriage, mid-life divorce, and mid-life dating. If a person is open to love---and I'm referring now to romantic love---he or she is every bit as capable of falling in love (or staying in love) at 40, 50, 60 or beyond as at 20 or 30.

Of course, that's a big "if". People often become so jaded, so disillusioned, so fearful of being hurt and hurt again, that at some point they close their minds and hearts to even the possibility of love. They convince themselves that love is nothing more than a mutual misunderstanding, a gross lapse of judgment, a foolish thing that you experience when you're young and which you survive if you're lucky.

There's no question that love does involve risks, which is probably why Jeanne Moreau used the word "protect". (In fact, from what I know of her life, she's had her share of romantic ups and downs). But she knew that a life without risk is a life without adventure, a life without possibility, which is another way of saying no life at all.

She also knew that a person in love is young, no matter what the birth certificate says. We focus so much on the outward signs of aging---the sore knees, the sagging muscles, the facial lines---that we forget that the surest evidence of age is a loss of enthusiasm. If you still care passionately about something, if you have things you still want to accomplish in life, if you're still open to experience and pleasure, love will have a way of finding you.