It's one of those things. It happens to all of us after a certain age. Einstein had a formula for it. It's called relativity. Of course he was concerned with time, but I'm talking about relatives. I was talking with my Mom yesterday afternoon and she mentioned one of the cousins. Now I haven't seen this cousin in over fifty years, although she has been mentioned. I did have some brief Facebook interface with her a few years back. So Mom says, did you know Elizabeth is going to be sixty. What? How can that be, I thought. She's just a kid! She is quite a bit younger than I and I'm only sixty six, and sixty six isn't old. Strangely, sixty is pretty old for Elizabeth! Do you know what I mean? Now that's relativity! Stranger still, it also applies with non-relatives. So maybe time isn't relative at all but a universal constant. I don't know what Einstein would have to say about that. Well whatever the case may be, I'm always shocked when it happens.
I can't say with certainty the last time I saw Elizabeth. She was young enough that her father still called her Dolly. No explanation for that, it is just what her Dad called her. I expect when she got a bit older her friends didn't call her Dolly. But I was 18 when I left for the Navy and she would have been 12 at that time. So you can understand, to me, she was just a kid. That's the way it is at that age. At eighteen I'm feeling like a grown man and a twelve year old is just a kid. That's relativity. Our parents are always old, they just keep getting older. Older siblings the same way. Now I can't say about younger siblings, I never had any of those, but I expect they would remain " kids " in the same our own children do. Yeah mine are forty one and I say to the wife, have you heard from the kids? She knows who I'm talking about. It's relativity. But now I'm sixty six, almost, and that isn't old. Sure its' enough to draw social security, retirement, and get the senior discount, but it's not old. It's just the beginning of that time in my life where I get to enjoy myself. I don't have to go to school, or work! I've reached that goal, climbed the mountain.
It is a bit of a shock to climb that mountain to discover your cousin, that kid, is old! That's right, she is old. My god, she's sixty. Surely I must have been dragging my feet somewhere along the way. She has almost caught up with me. I don't know for sure but she could be a grandmother by now. Grandparents are old people, well except for the wife and I, we're not old. I don't know, some things just age at different speeds I guess. It's like new curtains in your house, just bought them a little while ago, then you realize it's been ten years! There are lots of things like that, animate and inanimate, makes no difference.
It is something that I have noticed. You know it works that way with the value of a dollar too. What I sometimes call, old peoples money. Now old people's money has greater value than young money. Maybe that is why you hear talk about the " old " money being more powerful, more influential, than new money. It takes more new money to equal the value of the old money. It's like this. Your grandfather gives you fifty dollars as a gift. To grandpa, that's a lot of money. almost a weeks pay! You look at it smiling, grateful, and thank him, all the while thinking, if I save this and get another fifty, I can buy a pair of shoes. That's also relativity. It also involves time. Have you gone to a movie lately? Now that is a measure of time, money and relativity. I remember going when the movies didn't come with warning labels, the tickets weren't in the double digits, and you could buy popcorn, candy and a drink for under two dollars. And you could relate to the movie! They weren't all superheroes, drug dealers or some alien fantasy stuff. Yes, they were good wholesome entertainment. Now that's relativity.
I can't say with certainty the last time I saw Elizabeth. She was young enough that her father still called her Dolly. No explanation for that, it is just what her Dad called her. I expect when she got a bit older her friends didn't call her Dolly. But I was 18 when I left for the Navy and she would have been 12 at that time. So you can understand, to me, she was just a kid. That's the way it is at that age. At eighteen I'm feeling like a grown man and a twelve year old is just a kid. That's relativity. Our parents are always old, they just keep getting older. Older siblings the same way. Now I can't say about younger siblings, I never had any of those, but I expect they would remain " kids " in the same our own children do. Yeah mine are forty one and I say to the wife, have you heard from the kids? She knows who I'm talking about. It's relativity. But now I'm sixty six, almost, and that isn't old. Sure its' enough to draw social security, retirement, and get the senior discount, but it's not old. It's just the beginning of that time in my life where I get to enjoy myself. I don't have to go to school, or work! I've reached that goal, climbed the mountain.
It is a bit of a shock to climb that mountain to discover your cousin, that kid, is old! That's right, she is old. My god, she's sixty. Surely I must have been dragging my feet somewhere along the way. She has almost caught up with me. I don't know for sure but she could be a grandmother by now. Grandparents are old people, well except for the wife and I, we're not old. I don't know, some things just age at different speeds I guess. It's like new curtains in your house, just bought them a little while ago, then you realize it's been ten years! There are lots of things like that, animate and inanimate, makes no difference.
It is something that I have noticed. You know it works that way with the value of a dollar too. What I sometimes call, old peoples money. Now old people's money has greater value than young money. Maybe that is why you hear talk about the " old " money being more powerful, more influential, than new money. It takes more new money to equal the value of the old money. It's like this. Your grandfather gives you fifty dollars as a gift. To grandpa, that's a lot of money. almost a weeks pay! You look at it smiling, grateful, and thank him, all the while thinking, if I save this and get another fifty, I can buy a pair of shoes. That's also relativity. It also involves time. Have you gone to a movie lately? Now that is a measure of time, money and relativity. I remember going when the movies didn't come with warning labels, the tickets weren't in the double digits, and you could buy popcorn, candy and a drink for under two dollars. And you could relate to the movie! They weren't all superheroes, drug dealers or some alien fantasy stuff. Yes, they were good wholesome entertainment. Now that's relativity.
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