You Know You're Getting Old

OLD
OLD
OLD

I know you don't want to hear or see that word. I don't either. But it is a fact.

We are all getting old. OK....maybe not old but older. Than we once were. The word "old" seems so finite and brings to mind the wrinkly geezers that I used to see down in Florida at my grandma's condo. We used to visit every year when I was a kid. I know the geezers are still there because 30 some years later, whenever I visit Florida, dammit if those geezers aren't still hanging around.

As we are getting older, the oblivion of childhood, of high school and college days, is fading further off in the outskirts of our memory, retrieved only during times of duress when dealing with the necessities of raising our high school and college age children.

M-e-m-o-r-i-e-s....yes, Barbra, where are you, sweetheart?

I have blogged once or twice about the onset of age and how I hate to fear it but love to fight it. In my head, I am only half my chronological age. But, let's face it, I can think I am a certain age all I want but eventually I will lose that edge.

But, where is that edge? How is it measured?

Here are some touchpoints that I have begun to use.

• You have been there, and done that. The t-shirt with that motto was made for you.
• You have gained patience. (please see the not-so-small print at the end of this)
• Your arm is not long enough to hold the reading material at the distance that will allow you to read it clearly. Time for reading glasses.
• Your bedtime is your bedtime. NO exceptions.
• You think twice about getting out on the dance floor, even after a few drinks.
• Your daughter more than occasionally feels the need to sheperd you in the search for appropriate fashion.
• You use the term "When I was your age..." far too frequently.
• Your best friend tells you that you are old (with a smile, of course).
• Your kids have been telling you for years that you are old. Somehow it was OK to ignore them, then.
• You think twice about wearing a bathing suit.
• Re-runs of bygone TV series sport clothing and hair styles that you wore at one point and you thought were very stylish. They were....then.
• Your tweezers are your new friend.

There are more. And, they are subjective. Each of us will have a different perspective on what it means to grow older.

The one I like the best is a link that I shared on Facebook a few days ago. It is irreverent, pragmatic, and oh so true: It's not that you build patience as you grow older. You just don't give a crap anymore.

This allows us "old" folks to live out loud, to live real, to live for what and who we are. Damn everything and everyone else.

Here's to growing older....and BETTER!