VALIDATED LIFE? GET YOUR TICKET STAMPED EARLY

A validated life, like a validated parking garage ticket, means freedom.

Except the validated parking ticket is more direct.

Put the card in the slot, the bar rises, you drive away.

What constitutes a validated life that raises the bar to escape the couch you’ve been parked on?

There’s been online noise about what you should do by the time you reach thirty.

For some people 30 is a milestone.

For baby boomers there’s an echo about not trusting anyone over thirty.

On November 15, 1964, the Chronicle printed the story, quoting Weinberg as saying “We have a saying in the movement that you can’t trust anybody over 30.”

A Chronicle columnist, Ralph J. Gleason, highlighted the saying in his column on November 18. The saying then went viral, becoming a favorite for reporters and columnists wishing to ridicule the young, the New Left, or the hippie/Yippie movement. That annoyed Weinberg, who has said,

I’ve done some things in my life I think are very important, and my one sentence in history turns out to be something I said off the top of my head which became completely distorted and misunderstood. But I’ve become more accepting of fate as I get older.

Who wants their life validated for being completely distorted and misunderstood? Anyone?

I’m sixty-seven as I write. Did I trust anyone over thirty when I was younger than thirty? No more than I trust anyone now.

Back in the early seventies we had loser hippies trolling high school girls because women their age had them figured for no good.

Younger girls thought they were cool with their long hair, van, and living in a trailer down by the river.

They got together at all-age dances at the neighborhood community building while the younger guys were busy trying to sneak in the back door.

You’ve got to learn to trust if you want a validated life. It’s even better if you’re someone trustworthy.

Validation At Thirty

By age thirty you’ve probably had some unhappiness.

Some of you have had the dark nights of harrowing doubt, asking,

“Is it all worth it? Why do I try so hard and fail time and again?”

Could be you need to change things up, but be careful who you listen to.

People older than thirty saying don’t trust anyone over thirty have an agenda.

So do people under thirty explaining what to do after 30.

30 Life Changes You Should Make After 30

• Create a Budget.
• Exercise Regularly.
• Get Serious About Paying Off Debt.
• Consider Buying Instead of Renting.
• Do More Cooking at Home.
• Stop Your Bad Habits.
• Invest in Quality Kitchen Essentials.
• Get to Know Yourself Again.

I’ll break it down for you:

Track your cash flow.

Don’t lay around until you’re stoved up and can’t move without help.

Learn how to manage money well enough that interest on loans won’t sink you.

Buy instead of rent means no landlord to call, so consider that.

Home cooking is all about ingredients, time, and temperature. It’s about learning more than sitting at a trough waiting to be slopped.

Review your habits, good and bad. Increase time with the good, decrease time with the bad. Stopping comes after decreasing time so much you that you wonder why you ever bothered with it.

Get a kitchen knife and cutting board with the idea you’ll have them the rest of your life. Now that’s an investment for the future.

Getting to know yourself is different than molding yourself to the current norms. Be who you are and look around at who you attract.

Better people attract better people.

Good People Want A Validated Life?

Whoever made this cooking tray dinner has just validated Life Changes.

They are winning and winning big.

Flattened chicken is what’s for dinner, but where’s that backbone?

If you count the things to do after thirty, six out of the eight are money related.

Take a look at AARP recommending what you should know at sixty-five.

Basically it’s saying, “Don’t leave money on the table.”

By now you may be wondering if everything is all about the money.

Not everything is about money, but it’s enough to encourage you to keep track.

Caring About A Validated Life

Once you’ve got your finances in order, what’s next?

Whether you plant a flower, get a gold fish, or marry into a family of weirdos, practice caring skills.

You won’t save the world, but you can leave it better from your time here, or your time there.

I saw a movie where an adult daughter said she appreciated how happy her mom was doing the mom work.

“It was easy for you because you loved doing it.”

“No I didn’t, not all of it.”

Go out of your way to help. Coach a team, do caregiving for a family member, tell your wife or husband something new you saw in them.

Do things you love doing with pizzazz, and get the rest done as well as you can.

Find people who help you understand the world better and be a good listener.

Beware of old and stupid, since age isn’t immune to ignorance.

There’s nothing worse than an older man glimmering with authority, yet insists on talking out of his ass.

Wait, there is something worse: People who know better becoming enthralled by the bullshit and ignoring any and all advice to the contrary.

They lose their money to constant requests and fear mongering.

Dignity Is Also A Lost Cause.

Worst of all is the complaining and whining that their leading light isn’t being treated right.

If you are 30, or 65, or get out and around enough to meet people, keep your bearings.

Know that a man boasting of his wealth is a weak man. If he’s rich, shouldn’t he have a rocket warming up for launch, or a boat so big it needs a special harbor?

Know that a man who proclaims himself a Man Of God to his followers shouldn’t have a van full of ex-wives, kids sprayed around with various women, and a consistent record of shittiness.

When you have a hollowed out man propped up for an audience who cheer and shout for more, who then retreats under the rock he crawled out from, it’s a math problem.

The promises to add value to the common man turns into added value for the rich guy.

Promises and declarations of revenge for the wrongs done to golden boy do nothing for anyone else.

Acting on orders from a head case means you might be one too.

If you want a validated life, show kindness to others when it feels right. The more often you do it, the more right it feels.

I’ll validate that ticket for you in comments.