It is one thing to wake up and realize that you are sixty two but when you start to think about others, it hits you. I am the youngest of four. Each of us were born about two years apart. So, my sister, whose birthday is this week will be sixty four. My brother turned sixty six in September and the eldest brother would have been sixty eight. Sadly, he left us last year. He is just waiting for the rest of us though. Time is a funny thing, how it always keep moving. Oh, it does pause for just a moment every now and again and it is usually not a good thing when it does. It is only good when we cause that stoppage. Those are the moments we remember. As we age, move forward in time, the greater blocks of time we are able to stop, or if you prefer, remember. That is true for the majority of us anyway, barring medical conditions. I find myself thinking in decades now, instead of years. It gets increasingly difficult to realize that you are aging. It is shocking to see your contemporaries sometimes, those you haven't seen in a while. My, how they have aged. Even though it is the same, or maybe just a year or two different than your own, it just sounds older ! Wonder why that is ?
It is said you are only as old as you feel. That holds some truth and I understand the meaning. Fortunately I am still quite ambulatory and try to stay current. Your age, no matter how old you feel, can be an impediment to being too current. That is true in dress and speech. There is another statement that I understand as well, there is no fool like an old fool ! I try not to look foolish. First impressions do count. The trick lies in finding your ground, your stronghold. Some people find eccentricity to be their strong point, while on others it just comes off as crazy. It lies in the choice of the decade. I'm a nineteen sixties kind of guy. Not the progressive side of that decade however, I wasn't all into the peace and love thing, I was a stalwart supporter of the more traditional things, Truth is, I wanted to be Dad. That was, as long as I could still be " cool " doing so. In the eighties and nineties I lost a little focus but didn't wander too far. Made some bad choices and made some great choices during those decades. If you were going to make a trailer to my life, those decades would provide some interesting scenes. The movie is not over yet, there are scenes yet to be filmed.
For the most part I forget about my age. It isn't a concern to me. There are reminders that pop up however. Like yesterday, I was talking with a young girl that is a cashier at the store. She saw my hat and said, " you were in the Navy ? " I said sure, but I retired in '93. She says, 1993 ? Well, of course it wasn't 1893 ya know. Then she adds, I wasn't even born yet. Now that made me feel old ! I have been retired longer than I was in the Navy but I didn't point that out. It was then I realized my own sons will be forty this year ! There it is that time thing again, always moving.
When I was a kid, and later as a young man, Mom would often say, " when are you gonna grow up ? " Well, I guess I have but don't know when that happened. My wife would disagree but that is a different topic. I did grow up in the sixties, at least that decade was my strongest influence. I have pretty much adopted the moral and social standards of that time. It is at my core. I have no desire to change that. Yes there were things that needed changing and I believe progress has been made. I also think an " overcorrection " has taken place. We need to return to the basics once again. Personal accountability lies at the core. That's all I can say about that. A little more focus on what " we " are doing and less worrying about what everybody else isn't doing. When we were children, little children that is, we were that way. Then we started shifting responsibility to others. Everybody else was doing it !
Well this turned into a bit of a rambling mess. I hope you found something amusing or interesting in these paragraphs. Forgive me, I'm getting old ! It is a convenient excuse.
It is said you are only as old as you feel. That holds some truth and I understand the meaning. Fortunately I am still quite ambulatory and try to stay current. Your age, no matter how old you feel, can be an impediment to being too current. That is true in dress and speech. There is another statement that I understand as well, there is no fool like an old fool ! I try not to look foolish. First impressions do count. The trick lies in finding your ground, your stronghold. Some people find eccentricity to be their strong point, while on others it just comes off as crazy. It lies in the choice of the decade. I'm a nineteen sixties kind of guy. Not the progressive side of that decade however, I wasn't all into the peace and love thing, I was a stalwart supporter of the more traditional things, Truth is, I wanted to be Dad. That was, as long as I could still be " cool " doing so. In the eighties and nineties I lost a little focus but didn't wander too far. Made some bad choices and made some great choices during those decades. If you were going to make a trailer to my life, those decades would provide some interesting scenes. The movie is not over yet, there are scenes yet to be filmed.
For the most part I forget about my age. It isn't a concern to me. There are reminders that pop up however. Like yesterday, I was talking with a young girl that is a cashier at the store. She saw my hat and said, " you were in the Navy ? " I said sure, but I retired in '93. She says, 1993 ? Well, of course it wasn't 1893 ya know. Then she adds, I wasn't even born yet. Now that made me feel old ! I have been retired longer than I was in the Navy but I didn't point that out. It was then I realized my own sons will be forty this year ! There it is that time thing again, always moving.
When I was a kid, and later as a young man, Mom would often say, " when are you gonna grow up ? " Well, I guess I have but don't know when that happened. My wife would disagree but that is a different topic. I did grow up in the sixties, at least that decade was my strongest influence. I have pretty much adopted the moral and social standards of that time. It is at my core. I have no desire to change that. Yes there were things that needed changing and I believe progress has been made. I also think an " overcorrection " has taken place. We need to return to the basics once again. Personal accountability lies at the core. That's all I can say about that. A little more focus on what " we " are doing and less worrying about what everybody else isn't doing. When we were children, little children that is, we were that way. Then we started shifting responsibility to others. Everybody else was doing it !
Well this turned into a bit of a rambling mess. I hope you found something amusing or interesting in these paragraphs. Forgive me, I'm getting old ! It is a convenient excuse.
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