Your body parts are descending without the aid of a parachut

[floratang]

Just when you think you have the experience, the style, the wisdom, the confidence to be gorgeous, it turns out your body parts are descending without the aid of a parachute and going up a light of stairs without gasping is a major fitness challenge.

I do not understand the words of "your body parts are descending without the aid of a parachute".
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[translator Jan]

Hi,
I think somebody had tried to say something like very fast, dropped like stone ,
nothing is keeping ( parchute) from taking on in speed
Don't worry a body in air can't go over 155 km/h to much
tension.
Regards
Jan

[Fan of Arabian horses]

Hi!

Jan, interesting explanation! But can you imagine the sense of the whole given sentence?

Floratang, I can?t help myself, I wonder where you have heard or read it? Is that the slogan of a game show?

Michael

[Yankee]

Hi Michael, Hi Cap'n-Pirate-Translator Jan, Hi Floratang

That sounds like one of Tom's "Quotable Quotes"

Floratang,
"Your body parts are descending without the aid of a parachute" -->
I understand this two ways, and I suspect the author intended that.

Descend can mean to drop or fall (also in the sense of move to a lower position)
!. Various parts of your body tend to fall (or sag) as you get older. And it's hard to be gorgeous when everything is sagging.
2. As people get older, they're usually not as strong as when they were younger. So, the strength of the body parts falls.

A parachute is designed to drastically reduce the speed of a fall, usually from a plane. Here it is used figuratively.

So, I think the author means there is nothing to slow or stop the rapid "fall" of your body parts.

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Fan of Arabian horses]

Hi Amy!

Thanks your explanation about the vivid comparision the given sentence makes sense!

Only, for me the definition of ?light of stairs? keeps hidden.

Would you please do me the favour to shed a light on ?light of stairs??

Michael

[Yankee]

Hi Landlubber

It should probably be "flight of stairs". I assume that was just a typo.

A flight of stairs is a series or group of stairs that go from one landing to the next.

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tom]

Hello

Dear Amy

You really made the simile very easy to understand, but what I could not understand was the first part of the sentence-----I mean, the simile's connection with your "getting experience and becoming gorgeous etc". Could you please shed some light on this one too?

Evers yours

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

The person wants to say that it takes time to become truly gorgeous. I addition to looking good, you need to experience life and acquire style, wisdom and confidence. Unfortunately, by the time you've done all that, your body doesn't look so good or work so well anymore.

How's that?

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tom]

Dear Amy

I am otherwise obsessed with the thought that life is passing me by and you made me more conscious with your interpretation

By the way, does this thought ever disturb you?

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

No, thank goodness.

But I've got friends who went into depression when they reached the ripe old age of 30. You can imagine what happened to those same people at 40.

Getting older doesn't bother me much at all. But, I admit, occasionally I look back to when I was 15 or so and I can still remember thinking back then that being as old as 25 was simply unfathomable and it was lightyears away.

One thing I will admit, though: Prior to the age of 40, I had a body. After 40, I really started noticing that I had body parts. And the older I get, the more body parts I seem to have.

Amy

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English