Illustration by Pat Eby, copyright 2011
When I was a kid, I counted the days each August until my birthday, so anxious was I to grow up. Friends similarly age-encumbered tell me they harbor mixed feelings about their natal day.
Some sail through on puffs of candle smoke and stay sweet as buttercream frosting throughout. Others grouse weeks before, because “there’s nothing to celebrate.” More than a few prefer to forget the day. To the grouses and the glum ones I say, “Grow up. You’re entirely too old to complain.”
What’s so bad about living long enough to understand the world doesn’t revolve around you? It’s freeing to pass sixty years and realize it’s a slip-and-slide to the finish, unless you live in some goat-herding village, swill kefir and eat garlic daily so you can live to a hundred and fifty. To do what? Watch goats gambol?
Here’s some advice
Those over sixty should give advice sparingly because nobody likes an old know-it-all.
Love yourself. If you’ve lived this long and nobody has killed you, it can’t be too hard.
Strengthen bonds within your family, if it isn’t too dysfunctional. Or, make money off them like Augusten Burroughs did with his tell-all memoir.
Surround yourself with good friends. Make sure some of them aren’t anything like you so you remember we all have different gifts.
Make dates with yourself and keep them. Find joy in solitude.
Do the things you enjoy. Don’t put off fun. Make time.
See new things, read new books, hear new sounds. When we create new memories, we’re not boring friends and family with re-runs. Plus, new pictures, sounds and feelings add to our inner slide show.
Have you heard this? Every old person holds the image of a younger self inside his or her aging body. Now I know why my dad nearly sparkled when he took his best girl, my mom, out on a date. She drove. He couldn’t see a thing, but in his mind’s eye, he was one handsome devil, and a remarkably pretty woman pushed his wheelchair.
Keep your mind and heart open to the possibility of love. Need I say more?
If you make a mistake now, you’ll have less time to regret it. Plus, you’ll probably forgive yourself sooner.
Remember, it’s never too late to give in to temptation. Start with your birthday cake.That wasn’t the image I conjured when I thought about temptation, but it’s a start. Take an end piece. Hell, put ice cream on it.
Celebrate, enjoy. See yourself reflected in the good wishes of friends.
You say it’s your birthday?
Happy birthday to you!!
