For a time, my friends would say, "Oh, fifty is the new thirty." Then years later, the same people would say, "Yes, sixty is the new forty." Maybe that was a stretch, but most of us are staying young longer than the generation before us.
But now, as I turn 70, I can only say, "Seventy is pretty old!" I will be the first to say that I am proud to have made it this far. It is like a badge of honor to have crossed the line into another decade. And while my mind invariably says "yes" to most new things, my body is smart enough to say "no".
Subject Change:
I am not fatalistic in the least, but the reality is that I have fewer birthdays ahead of me than I have behind me. I feel a bit of pressure to do some of the things that I have always wanted to but never got around to doing. My original bucket list looked something like this:
Learn to fly.
Hang glide.
Go to a "ball drop" in NYC on New Year's Eve.
Go to the Macy's Day Parade.
Drive a 1966 Shelby Mustang.
Meet a Beatle.
After hitting 70 this month, my list has morphed into more sedate activities.
Record a few songs that I used to sing our kids at bedtime.
Reach out to friends that I have not heard from in awhile.
Go back to the church in Provincetown, MA where we were married.
Learn a new skill.
Be thankful for everything.
Drive a 1966 Shelby Mustang.
I am so blessed. I grew up with great parents, a great family, lived in a great small town and got to experience life with great friends, mentors, and true "one of a kind" individuals (you know who you are)...and, of course, a wonderful wife and beautiful children. I know that these thing are not to be taken for granted because not everyone has these advantages.
Okay...I forgot where I was going with all of this. Anyway...I have ranted on long enough about nothing; however, I did want to leave you with my top five list of the advantages of being old:
People expect odd behavior from you - you don't have to pretend and there is no need to disappoint them.
Your clothes don't have to be stylist (or even match).
Your story-telling does not have to be bound by the facts (as if mine ever were!).
You have much more freedom to try new things and fail.
After a week or so, you don't remember the failures anyway.
Have a great....what were we talking about?
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