"How old are you?"
"I'm four and-a-half!"
"I'm four and-a-half!"
You're never thirty-six and-a-half. You're four an-a-half, going on five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
"How old are you?"
"I'm gonna be 16!"
"I'm gonna be 16!"
You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life... you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony:
YOU BECOME 21.
YESSSS!!!
YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Ooooh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk.
"He TURNED; we had to throw him out."
There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.
But wait! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.
You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!
You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90's, you start going backwards:
"I Was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again.
"I'm 100 and-a-half!"
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and-a-half!
13 comments:
You had better reach a hundred and a half yourself, this time. You have a terrible habit of dying before I'm ready for you to do so.
This is so true. I am 49 and haannnggging onto my forties.
I hated my 20s and loved my 30s. My 40s sucked due to bad choices on my part, but I L-O-V-E my 50s.
I just TURNED 30. Except I don't feel like rotten milk. ;)
One thing he didn't mention is, "Pushing". It matters to me because I'm PUSHING 60.
I just TURNED 40 myself, and other than the freakin health issues I am dealing with, I am truly content to be right where I am.
It's funny, how mature I thought I was when I became 30. As though somehow I had "arrived" into adulthood. Boy was I ever mistaken. Now, I just know I will look back when I am 50 and feel the same about 40. I guess we never really "arrive" into adulthood. That is OK with me.
Read RW's entry, How It Is. He really nailed what happens when one gets over the 50 mark.
For me, turning 50 was a lot like turning 30. When I turned 30 I had a sense that childhood was over and responsibilities had finally arrived (never mind that by then I'd been a parent for 12 years and already had a lot of responsibility). It was just...different. Like you said, Ville, there was a feeling of having arrived.
Turning 40 wasn't nearly as significant for me, it just felt like more of the same. But turning 50 was like stepping through a doorway into... impending old age! A lot of my energy went into what people call "Midlife Crisis" over the past six years, but something's happened since I began to look 60 in the face. It's really very nice, and RW summed it up beautifully.
For me, going through the past six years have been a lot like going through adolescence. Now that I've come out on the other side, I'm ready to just get on with life and drop my preoccupation with the numbers. But now I'm feeling this sense of having limited time to get stuff done. On the other hand, that 's beginning to be overshadowed with a feeling of, "Ah, who really cares if I never write that masterpiece? No one I know is keeping score except me. I think I'll go out and water the Morning Glories."
The worst part for me is my health. Hashimoto's Disease is succeeding in taking away my favorite vices: drinking, staying up late, working at a fevered pitch on my creative projects, etc. That's the only thing that really sucks.
I'm 40 next month. I'm not sure how I feel yet.
I love my 40s! If my 50s are anything like this it will be one adventure after another
I'll be 40 next year. I can't wait!
I love my 40s! If my 50s are anything like this it will be one adventure after another
I hated my 20s and loved my 30s. My 40s sucked due to bad choices on my part, but I L-O-V-E my 50s.
Read RW's entry, How It Is. He really nailed what happens when one gets over the 50 mark.
For me, turning 50 was a lot like turning 30. When I turned 30 I had a sense that childhood was over and responsibilities had finally arrived (never mind that by then I'd been a parent for 12 years and already had a lot of responsibility). It was just...different. Like you said, Ville, there was a feeling of having arrived.
Turning 40 wasn't nearly as significant for me, it just felt like more of the same. But turning 50 was like stepping through a doorway into... impending old age! A lot of my energy went into what people call "Midlife Crisis" over the past six years, but something's happened since I began to look 60 in the face. It's really very nice, and RW summed it up beautifully.
For me, going through the past six years have been a lot like going through adolescence. Now that I've come out on the other side, I'm ready to just get on with life and drop my preoccupation with the numbers. But now I'm feeling this sense of having limited time to get stuff done. On the other hand, that 's beginning to be overshadowed with a feeling of, "Ah, who really cares if I never write that masterpiece? No one I know is keeping score except me. I think I'll go out and water the Morning Glories."
The worst part for me is my health. Hashimoto's Disease is succeeding in taking away my favorite vices: drinking, staying up late, working at a fevered pitch on my creative projects, etc. That's the only thing that really sucks.
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