LIFE LESSONS START EARLY FOR OLD MEN

As a middle child myself for fourteen years, life lessons were important.

We learned early to share with smaller kids, and not whine too much when older kids didn’t.

Was there a learning curve?

There’s always a learning curve when learning is involved.

It’s not for everyone, to say the least, but . . .

Sometimes a 70 year old breaks out their version of life lessons, which is nice.

I’m a seventy year old myself, a baby boomer in the middle, which feels like a perfect fit.

Older boomers, the first wave, look older than dirt; young boomers, the third wave, might as well be GenX.

Over years of scholarship and observation, boomers have been clumped together and also sub-divided, but that’s for another post.

Today we’re slinging an interpretation of aging on BoomerPdx, David’s version.

 

For Starters:

1. Happiness

Let’s break it down. There’s ‘hap’ and ‘piness.’

Make of it what you will with hap, or piness.

Happiness doesn’t live or die, but that piness might.

After that, that perfect moment may never come.

2. Health

Your health may fade, then it may come back.

After chemo and radiation I felt like a dead man, before I came back.

After hip surgery I gimped around worse than I ever did, before I came back.

If you’re looking for a way out, you’ll find it if it doesn’t find you first.

Believe in the comeback. ‘It’s only a scratch.’

 

 

3. Time

In Catch-22 one character spends as much time as they can around boring people doing boring things.

His goal was making time last longer.

It could work?

4. Call Parents

At seventy I’m an orphan with both parents passed.

I have a voice mail from my Mom’s second husband.

Save something.

5. I Love You

Just this morning I told my wife, “I love you,” in a tender voice, adding, “I like us, too.”

That’s a winning combination.

You’re welcome.

6. Memories

I’ll remember the best car I ever had, a cruiser that cruised until a kid drove through a suburban stop sign and totaled it with me driving and the wife riding shotgun.

Two years old and just getting broken in.

Think of your marriage the same way. However long it is, it’s just getting broken in.

7. Grudges

If you can’t let go of grudges, think of them as hobbies.

Everybody needs a hobby.

8. Waiting

Practice patience.

Getting older doesn’t mean going to the head of the line, as you know from standing in line at a pharmacy.

9. Forgetting

Forgetting and forgiving works best until you go a high school reunion and experience the way you felt all over again.

We never forget.

10. Too Old

If you think you’re too old, or don’t think you’re too old, you’re right.

 

Old Man Life Lessons, Or Excuses

I’ve heard it said women dress for women, because only women know the challenge of looking good.

You’ve heard it, too?

The same thing goes for men.

You probably haven’t heard that one.

Men who let themselves go are nothing new, except the haired-out old man of today could have been the haired-out hippie in the past.

What’s changed?

The hair.

Every time I go long with hair and beard I see someone who looks like crap and say:

Me: They look like crap.

Wife: They look like you.

With that said, old man, you’re not invisible, you haven’t disappeared, you just live near two ‘fifty-five and over communities’ full of guys resigned to their fate.

And they’re ten years younger than you.

Snap out of it.

No one is looking as good as Pierce Brosnan in his seventies, but why not try?

That is your mission, part of the life lessons you can pass on, but not if you look and sound like a dump.

 

I’ll Have One, Maybe Two

When you arrive to this scene, brother you have arrived.

When people who know how to set a table set it up for you and your wife, you want to be at your best.

I don’t care what age you are, this image says one thing: If you’re old enough to drink, you’ll find something just right for the mood.

The mood was a birthday, but not just any birthday.

It was the Baron Of Bethany’s birthday.

A group of eight or so sat in a comfortable circle with drinks in hand discussing the years that have passed so quickly.

One of the other men went long on history, which is a treat so I’m not the only one who sounds like a wind-bag.

With him taking the lead on a wave of enthusiasm, I rode the same wave with corrections and additions.

Follow me for more tips on being a good guest. (Hey Barry)

 

PS: If you live a meaningful life, leave a comment. If you live a meaningless life, get counseling. Then leave a comment.

 

PSS: The mainstays of life lessons are rooted in education, learning, and family. The older you get, the more people close to you look for slippage, for repetition, forgetfulness.

To them say: It’s not me, it’s you. Stand up to those millennials as long as you can. (Hey boys)