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Posts Tagged ‘aging’

Beatle Birthday

Posted in Culture, tagged , , , , , on 01 Dec 2022| 1 Comment »

This weekend is my Beatle Birthday.

I had my “LP” Birthday in 1992, my “Single” Birthday in 2003—and if you’re old enough to get those references, I see you—but they went by relatively (or completely) unnoticed, unmarked, unremembered. (My “78” Birthday, in 2036, might be the same, and I hope I’m lucky enough to reach it.)

Since 1967, though, I’ve thought fondly of this coming milestone, despite the fact that I was convinced I’d never reach such an “advanced” age. The song pretty much nailed what I looked forward to in my elder years (sans grandkids, of course; never wanted kids, much less grandkids), with its images of puttering in the gardens, fixing things about the house, taking a month at the seaside in summertime.

I mentioned last time that my retirement is finally visible on the horizon, and this birthday, routinely imagined for the past 55 years, is a time to stop, look around, and evaluate.

Some of my friends have already retired. Some have put their all into new ventures. Some hopped on a plane on Day One and began (or continued) to travel the world. Some, sadly, took ill, beginning entirely unplanned journeys. I admit, I compared the image in my head with how they began their Third Act, and felt the old report card put-down of “Not performing up to his potential.”

It’s not as though I plan never to travel. It’s not as though I plan not to try new things, learn new things. It’s not as though I plan to spend my entire retirement digging the weeds and fixing fuses. It’s just that, in my heart, after decades of pushing, learning, wrangling, fretting, struggling, planning, pacing, saving, working, I merely want to slow down and enjoy the ticking of the clock, the crackle of the fire, perhaps the crash of waves on the shore, and the settling of ice in a dram of whisky.

And, of course, I hope that she will still need me, that she will still feed me, when I’m sixty-four.

k

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Understanding My Father

Posted in Culture, Hi Tech, Low Tech, tagged , , , , , , on 20 May 2021| 7 Comments »

My father was a distinctly midcentury man.

He was a man of tract homes and manual transmissions, cigarettes and pipe tobacco, straw hats and huaraches, sand dunes and surf fishing, Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé, pancakes with his kids on Saturday morning and roasted meats with his dad at the table on Sunday nights.  He was a dry martini/red wine with ice kind of guy: uncomplicated, elemental, rustic, reserved.

And yet, in his final decade, I found him nearly indecipherable. (more…)

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The Long View Forward

Posted in Culture, tagged , , , on 09 Nov 2018| 2 Comments »

I’ve never been one for milestone birthdays, but this one is different. It feels like a milestone, and so a few days ago I decided to just go with it.

What I didn’t expect, though, was that this “go with it” approach has engendered a fair bit of introspection. I know. Shocker, right? Still, it doesn’t feel wrong to take a long look back in order to see the long view forward.

In a few short weeks, I’ll be sixty years old. Not bad for a kid who never thought he’d live past the age of twenty-six. I’m in good health, take no prescription meds, and sure, I’ve got a dodgy knee and could benefit from losing some of that IPA-paunch I’ve developed, but overall, I’m not in danger of punching my ticket any time soon.

So, I’m on the cusp of what feels like a new chapter. What have my previous chapters been? (more…)

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Happy 35th 25th

Posted in Culture, tagged , , , , , on 10 Nov 2014| 2 Comments »

This weekend past, two friends celebrated birthdays. They’re both a good bit younger than I am, but that didn’t bother me. After all, a lot of people are younger than I.

This weekend past was the 25th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall came down. Yes, a quarter century since the end of the Cold War. But that didn’t bother me, either. It was a good day, full of joy, and easily remembered.

What did bother me was that, this weekend past, Rickie Lee Jones was also celebrating a birthday.

Her 60th birthday.

Wh–wha?

Sorry. Rickie Lee Jones is not 60 years old. Nope. Can’t happen. Can’t be true.

Rickie Lee Jones is twenty-five years old, always has been. Always will be. I refuse to concede the notion that she ages along with the rest of us, even if it means that I am now more than twice her age.

It’s not that I’m an avid RLJ fan. Yes, I do have most everything she’s recorded, but that’s it. I listen, I like, but I don’t “follow” or read up on her projects, her life. Nor do I have a mad crush on her or anything; I don’t, and never have. In fact, it is precisely because these things are not true that she remains unchanged in my mind. Were I to follow her career more closely, I would have been exposed to photos and interviews in which it was apparent that, yes, she’s no longer twenty-five years old.

But I don’t.

And so, RLJ is forever that smoke-filled-saloon-chanteuse, that beret-wearing finger-snapping retro-beatnik I first heard back in the ’70s. Rickie, the queen of slide-singing and the vocal fry, is the sound of my youth reverberating across the decades. Other voices from my past have aged along with me, but not RLJ. Her music continues to make me smile, make me cry; it fills my lungs with youthful air and lifts aged weights from my shoulders. I cannot have her music on in the background, for her voice always creeps forward, steals my attention, and holds me rapt as she sings her bittersweet tales.

So, happy birthday, Ms. Jones. Happy 35th 25th birthday.

k

Kanji character Raku: happiness, music, joy.

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