Today is the first day of the rest of my life or so I have been told. This morning I treated my wife to a salvo of creaks, pops and groans as I sat up in bed, turned off the alarm clock and made my slow trudge to the coffee pot -- my first day as a 40-year-old man, I thought as I looked in on my 10-year-old boy laying snuggly in his bed by Russell W. Dickson
(libertarian)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Today is the first day of the rest of my life or so I have been told. This morning, I treated my wife to a salvo of creaks, pops and groans as I sat up in bed, turned off the alarm clock and made my slow trudge to the coffee pot -- my first day as a 40-year-old man, I thought as I looked in on my 10-year-old boy laying snuggly in his bed.
The Floorboards on the staircase creaked under my feet as I walked downstairs to my tepid living room. I went over to the thermostat, turned it up, heard the whoosh of my furnace, walked to the kitchen and stood in the dark as I waited for my coffee to brew.
How is it possible that I'm 40? I know to most 40 is not that old, but for me it is a hard concept to come to terms with. It is true though, that's what it says on my birth certificate. I still feel 18 in my heart as I remember the years gone by, but 80 in my body as I exam the scars on my leg. The errors of my youth I think to myself.
I've never been one to moan and groan about the passing of the years because I think complaining about the passage of time and trying to stop, slow or disguise it is a lot like trying to teach politicians to care about the people. It's a waste of time and costs a lot of money.
So I will, after taking my migraine medicine, blood pressure pills, and down my stiff brew of Guatemalan blend coffee -- try to count my blessings and celebrate the fact that I'm getting older, slowly but surely. Of course, I'm lying. No one really wants to get "older," because the next step is unthinkable. We all want to have our sharp, middle-aged minds transplanted into younger, stronger bodies so we can conquer the world. We have all looked back on life and said "if only?"
I think that's what all this fascination with teen vampires on TV is all about. Teenagers can be clueless, but they aren't dumb. They want to live forever, too, but they want to do it in their young bodies -- no receding hairlines, no hair growing in odd places, no panic attacks at the sight of the crow's feet at the edges of their eyes ...
What better way to live, young and healthy until the end of time than as a soullessblood-sucking vampire? Let's see, either become a vampire or get into politics? The funny thing about the passage of time is the realization that we spend our teenage years feeling like we know everything. Then when we become young adults, and step out into the world on our own, we realize how little we, in fact, do know, which inevitably leads to the realization that our parents were smarter than we thought. I look at my parents now and admire them for the people they are, and they still teach me things to this day. The beauty of age is about the wisdom acquired from life experience, and with it, an acceptance and celebration of who we are. Aging is something we all fight, something we refuse to accept. Aging is a matter of control and control of our bodies. I realize I'm blessed to even be able to acquire age. Aging is a privilege, not a right; most of us in the civilized world forget this. In Swaziland, the overall life expectancy is 39.6 years. In the U.S., it is 78.3 according to cia.gov/the-world-factbook. The statistics are shocking to us, but it is something to be grateful for as we look into the mirror every morning cringing at the new lines appearing on our faces. Dylan Thomas once wrote, "Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
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Posted By: Bill Gee
Date: March 3, 2011 06:48:51 AM
Happy Birthday, Russ.
My 40th came this past October. For the past year I've been monitoring my blood pressure on a weekly basis, (not too bad, but on the edge of bad) I've been a vegetarian for five years, (heart disease and colon cancer runs in the family so I don't want to take any chances), and I try to spend as much time as I can with my 2 year-old son.
I think when we reach this age, we do come to the realization that we aren't as young as we think we are, and we need to start to either take more responsibility for our health, or be prepared to face the consequences if we don't.
