You know you are old when you awaken at 4 a.m., look out your front window and notice that the 30-something neighbor’s house across the street is all lit up because he still hasn’t gone to bed from the night before!
When it comes to getting and being old, I have reached that “Fugetaboutit” stage of life where I dismiss doing some things by simply noting “I’m too old for that shit.” There are the obvious things that I have dismissed trying to do such as bungee jumping, skydiving, running with the bulls etc.. However, I also have an ever growing list of other things I have no desire to try and do anymore because, as I said, I am too damn old for it.
For example, at one time in my life I loved crowds and attending events and being in them. Thus, I had my eye on big ticket items such as New Year’s Eve in New York, the Carnival in Rio, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, hitting a Super Bowl etc..
However, I can now just as easily settle for watching these events on T-V and pretend that I was there without all the hassle of actually attending them. Even in a pre-Covid world I had begun to cool on going to big events like this. While I still want to travel and go places and see and do things, I want to do so at my own pace and discretion however slowed or impaired each of those may be.
Once you acknowledge and accept that you either are no longer able to do the things you once could do or, more likely, you no longer have the desire to do them, fortunately the opposite side of this equation is a good one. The time that you save by not wasting it on some things, frees you up to spend it on some other, more worthwhile endeavors such as hanging out with your family and friends. The Mccartney lyric “I’m taking the time for a number of things that weren’t important yesterday” comes to mind. You are never too old to do that!
Nice Eric Church tune talking about getting older and looking back. As Satchel recommended against doing, that is not always a good idea.
Thank you lady!