Monday, February 09, 2009
Life's Little Milestones...
02/09/2009
Along the road of life we have some little Milestones, some larger Milestones and an occasional Huge Milestone. Think about it, there is The 1st birthday; The Terrible Twos; The first Day of School; Becoming a Teenager: The 18th and 21st Birthdays; Marriage; The 30th Birthday Dog Days; The Infamous 40th Birthday and the “Over The Hill Party” that comes with it; and after that comes The 45th, aka the official beginning of the Middle Aged years; The Fiftieth, from which point it is downhill, so I’ve been told ; and lastly, The Last Birthday – everyone of us will have one of those.
Today, February 9, 2009 is a truly big day for me. This is a huge Life Milestone for yours truly. Today, I became an official Senior Citizen. Today, I have reached my Sixty-Fifth Birthday. I rather like to refer to this as the Twenty-Sixth Anniversary of my Thirty-Ninth Birthday. It is much more palatable that way. Thirty nine is a good age to be, forever.
I so vividly remember my dad at age sixty five. Dad was a cool dude, but at sixty five he was old. He acted old, and he looked old, as a lot of people from his generation did and do. Somewhere along the path things changed. These days, thank God, sixty five doesn’t have to be old. Seventy five doesn’t have to be old. My brother is seventy seven and doesn’t look or act any older than I. It’s all in ones attitude, and Lord knows, I haven’t grown up yet, and the chances of it happening anytime soon are very slim.
Being a male senior citizen has perks. Not just the evident stuff like senior discounts, but some good stuff. I can stare at a woman’s boobs from now on if I want and not get in trouble for it. I can fart in public and be excused. If I fall asleep in a meeting or church (if I went), it is simply passed off as a consequence of being a “senior.” This being an Old Fart may not be so bad. Just think, I can now go to McDonald’s and get free refills of coffee, and sit around with other seniors (euphemism for Old Fart) who have little or nothing to do and talk about little or nothing to do with anything. Well, we might talk about boobs or other important stuff like medical conditions. A visit to McDonald’s isn’t high on my priority list, yet. I don’t see this happening in my near future, but I won’t swear it couldn’t happen. Things do change.
I remember as a teenager thinking about how in the year 2000 I would be fifty-seven years old and that in 2009 I would be sixty-five years old and probably retired. Here it is 2009 and I am sixty five with no thought of retiring anytime soon. I got up this morning thinking about how different my life may be from this point on. I thanked God for this day, as has become my ritual, and got myself ready to come to work. It is a new day in a new year of my life. It is a lot like yesterday, only better. This day I get to ride a Bull Named Fu Manchu and Live Like I were Dying. It is a great day in my life and I love it.
And that is all I have to say about that…
Friday, February 06, 2009
Live Like You Were Dying
02/06/2009
The other day I was driving to work and scanning through local radio stations. I live in West Virginia, so radio programming here consists of NPR, religious content, ancient rock and, of course, lots of country. Now don’t get your drawers in wad. I am not slamming any genre of music. I enjoy them all, even Jesus radio, once in a while. This day I hit on a station just in time to hear “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw. Knowing there are no accidents, this one clearly struck a note.
Just a few days prior to this I heard of the death of the father of a guy I work with. This one was tragic. This man was, as the story goes, out jogging, tripped and fell, striking his head. Ignoring the headache, he subsequently fell into a coma and passed away.
Moments before McGraw’s song began to play I was thinking about this death and thought about the man. As the words of the song settled into my ears, I wondered if he lived his life this way. I hope he did.
It is so easy to live the mundane life, to take the low road, to keep your expectations low. But to live like you were dying, it is even easier. Like the Nike line, Just Do It. Smile a lot, hug freely, never lie, always love, forgive and forget, pay it forward, dance naked in your back yard. Well, maybe the last one goes aboard a bit, but I think you may get the message I am trying to convey. We never know when the end might come, but I know when it is my turn people will say, “That SOB did it right.”
Enough pontification, I am off to ride a bull name Fu Man Chu, and go Sky Diving and Rocky Mountain Climbing.
And that is all I have to say about that…
Thursday, February 05, 2009
I Am Around, I Really Am...
02/05/2009
I am around, I really am…
You may have wondered if something had happened to me. I seem to have been AWOL since January 23rd. Truth is, I am a busy guy. February 1st is the beginning of my company’s fiscal year. It is also the time when my new sales quota comes down from the Ivory Tower dudes, and the tears flow. It is the time when I have to make evaluations of those people who work for me, and these are all done now. So it is back to a somewhat more normal time, and I will be able to get back to bullshitting my loyal fans.
Give me a couple of days and I promise I will dazzle you with my brilliance. In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy the music.
And that is all I have to say about that…
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Another Saturday Morning...
01/24/2009
It is 7:45 and I have been up for about two hours. The house is quiet except for Sirius channel 73 (New Age), the dripping of the coffee maker and an occasional run-through by our wacky cat. The sky is filled with gray clouds that spread from west to east. The leafless trees appear to have skinny fingers pointing upward begging for spring to come. The fields that surround the farmhouse I live in are a very uninviting brown. Sixty days from now the view from this vantage point will look very different – spring will have sprung by then, but I have to say I love it just as it is.
There is a certain joy I feel when I am alone here in this room in the early hours. I am not sure I can put how I feel it into words, but damn good seems to fit. I read somewhere recently we should each spend ten minutes each day sitting in a quiet room alone with just our thoughts. I find when I do this I am overwhelmed with feelings of happiness and joy, my emotion soars and I feel as if I will cry.
On the evening news last night I heard someone say something about everyone being depressed by the economic woes we are experiencing. I think, while many people may be depressed – loss of job or loss of income, I am not one of them. Many people have lost jobs, but the vast majority of people still have them. These are tough, uncertain times, no doubt. This is the worst economy I have ever witnessed, but this to will pass. It always has. The economy is cyclical, it goes up and it goes down. The good part of all of this mess is I still have Saturdays like this one, where I can sit in my favorite chair, in my favorite room, in my favorite house, in my favorite state and feel good about being alive and about myself and being able to say, “Thank you, God, for this day.”
And that is all I have to say about that…