You’re not old! Old age is fifteen years older than I am. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
You’re not young. Thank God. Before thirty-something, This Too Shall Pass has no meaning.
Then again, you’re as young as you’ll ever be.
Romance? (See 2.) You’re done with the drama. Either you’re single. Or, you’re married (or the equivalent). Or you were, and opted out. Whatever. It’s all good.
The last time you had free time you were a kid. Naturally you squandered it. Kids, parents, spouse, job, and your need for sleep— all make you fiercely appreciate time unspoken for. And the health to use it.
You are the age your parents were when you looked up to them. Ha. There is nobody to look up to. We are all bumbling our way through, figuring it out (or not) as we go. True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.KURT VONNEGUT
Before, it was all about: You don’t like me? Like me! Like me! Now it’s: Do I like you? As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.ANDREW CARNEGIE
You have arrived, financially, and otherwise. Those who once felt entitled to mold you have given up. If you take up something ridiculous for your age— like, say, belly dancing— no one expects anything of you. Free! Free at last!
People younger than you are very sick. Or dead. You turn is coming. Time to belly dance!
You know that expression: Youth is wasted on the young. In your twenties, it’s ridiculous: old farts’ sour grapes. In your thirties and forties, you agree, bemoaning lost opportunities and other regrets: “If only I knew then what I know now….” Then, at some point, you get it, and marvel at Nature’s wisdom. If you knew then what you know now, you would have been… a menace.
The problems we have created for ourselves, and our planet, are so huge, they are probably un-fixable. Which may be a good thing. If we destroy ourselves as a species, Mother Earth may recover. Still, why not do what you can to help Her heal? Sure, it’s a mere drop in the bucket. But so what. Drop by drop the bucket fills. Maybe yours will make it spill.
People are both incredibly smart and invincibly stupid.This used to be a tragedy. Now it’s hilarious.
What is the core gain? Perspective. Happily, it’s a gain that keeps on giving. Middle age is the long, long bridge between youth and old age. Standing on it, you can look back over your shoulder to see (if you're wearing your glasses) where you’ve come from. Looking forward, you know death comes at the end. Between now and then is a fog. You can sort of glimpse what's just up ahead, if you squint.
