Hmmmmm

I'm 71 years old today. My God! This aging isn't anything like I thought it would be. I was trying to explain to my daughter today--or was it yesterday or the day before?--about why the little dizzy spells I've been having over the past 3 weeks are not that troublesome. People in the pink of their life, mid-40s, like her, can't relate to the miscellaneous pains, aches, bone creaks, mysterious discomforts, bowel irregularities, toothaches, and on and on that afflict the denizens of my age bracket. I was telling her you just get used to these various moments of hurt and go on because almost all of the time they don't mean anything serious. Just your body reminding you that "Hey, I've been on a job a frigging long time, and you should recognize the fact. So--and this it where it pokes you--"here I am!"

Fact of the matter is, you change, but you don't change. In countless ways I'm just the same person I was when I was in my 20s. Somehow I don't think we should count the teen years (mine were pretty miserable, btw, till I got off to college, and then they were just mindless). Exactly the same. But not exactly the same at all, because years of the experience of life change you. If you're lucky, you learn something, but even if you're not, you learn something. Problem is, the lessons are most of the time ambiguous. That's why when you're older you're much more likely to say "hmmmm...." when confronting a situation. While when you're younger, the "hmmmmm" likely comes after the hasty decision.