As both you faithful readers know, I don’t like birthdays. Specifically, I don’t like my birthday. I don’t really know why, I just don’t like my birthday — never have, even when I was a kid. I don’t think its because I’m getting older… I get older every day. There’s just something (that I’ve never been able to put my finger on) that I don’t like.
But — whether I like it or not, birthdays come along every year, and I don’t disagree with the saying that “getting old is better than the alternative.”
And today’s the day — I’m no longer in my seventies and fear that I’m rapidly approaching my ‘best before’ date. Being this old, I’ve learned everything. Now I just have to remember it.
I’m pretty new to being 80 — but now that I’m here, I feel no sense of “achievement” — I just wonder how the heck I got to be so old. When you reach any age, it’s really not an achievement — there’s a lot of luck involved. A couple of people have asked me if I dreaded getting to this age. Well, no. It just happened.
So here I am at 80 — am I happy? Actually, I am. Happier than I’ve ever been? No, I’ve been so fortunate and blessed in my life that just about everything has made me happy. When I met Claire, when we got married, when David and Kelly were born, when Emily, Locke, Rory and Ellie were born…. certainly all those times were happier than turning 80. Of course if I listed all the things that made me happier than getting old, this would be a very long blog.
Some people seem to think when you reach a certain age, you can speak your mind, do what you want and even be rude because you no longer have to worry about what people think. But actually, politeness and good manners are important no matter what your age. I do still care about what people think and I still worry about many of the same things…like what the future holds for our children and grandchildren.
Maybe one of the more comforting things about growing old is an increased ability to not take things too seriously. Another thing that’s changed, is my ideals. I usually don’t admit, or at least tell people that I don’t have ideals. When I was younger, I had loftier ideals and thought I could actually change things and make them better. Today, I still rant and rave, but now I’m more or less content to simply deplore the state of things. I don’t think that means that I don’t care, I’ve just become more aware my limitations — and sort of accepted the limitations of our leaders — and everyone in general, I guess. I don’t try to convert people to my way of thinking and try not to feel superior because some of these people appear to be lacking in intelligence.
The last 10 or 12 years that I worked, I had a sign in my office that read, “You Just Can’t Fix Stupid!” I thought it was true then and I think it’s true today. You can try to fix most everything and you can fight a lot of things, like evil. But if you’re up against stupid, you’re helpless. I have come to accept the fact that human beings are inclined to behave in ways that are often unimaginable — sometimes its factors like evil, but sometimes, I’m convinced, it’s stupidity. And everyone seems to think they’re “right.” God is always on their “side.” Even athletes thank God for being on their side and helping them to victory.
I guess as I ponder life in, here, my 80th year, my good luck, long life and years of happiness is not so much as a result of having God on my side, but more the result of having God by my side.
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