December 29th officially marks the day I am supposed to be a year wiser. Not sure if that is true, but after all the events of the last 12 months, I'd like to hope so.
I do intend to return to the previous course of conversation soon, because there are more directions I need to go with it. However, this post is to be a simple reflection on aging and wisdom.
Tonight I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with some friends, which was fitting, considering my birthday tomorrow. I won't spoil it for you, but the general story is about a man who is born old and spends the rest of his life growing younger, all the way into infancy. Other than that curious detail, in my opinion it is a cross between Forrest Gump and The Notebook.; if you enjoyed either of those films you will like this one.
I wondered tonight, is there any age I would return to? Sometimes I think that advice titled Sunscreen** is all too true. Especially the part about not being as fat as you think you are. I loved ages 7 and 12 and 19, each for different reasons. Would I go back? Well, for the health, for the body maybe, but I wouldn't trade my wisdom for anything. The years we go through thinking our parents are stupid soon pass, and today I look at a 19 year old and think how immature they seem. But then, I think, my mom looks at me that way, and I find myself looking forward to having as much more wisdom at 60 than I do at 38 as I feel like I have at 38 compared to 19 years old.
Life is hard, and the things that give us wisdom are generally the most difficult things we endure. However, they bring something we cannot buy, cannot learn in books or earn by working. They bring us an ability to look at the future in a way we cannot imagine when we are young. They give us the most valuable thing we will ever possess, something younger people seek out when they are lost in their inability to see beyond their own noses.
And it is never too late to be something, as I have recently been finding for myself. Never too old to gain that which you dream of, or too old to change.
I went to lunch with a group of girlfriends from high school. We are all the same age, and even as I'm looking ahead towards dating and drivers licenses, two of them just married this year and are now expecting their first children. A third is just now pregnant with her second child.
I also know a woman who returned to college in her 60's to obtain her Master's degree.
I don't mind growing older. Yes, I have regrets, but regretting something doesn't change it. I have learned to be comfortable in my own skin and to am beginning to appreciate my positive traits. I'm am now seeking that thing which I'm supposed to do next; I don't know what it is but I have great anticipation of something good.
Or as it is said in Benjamin Button:
"It's never too late, or in my case, too early, to be whatever you want to be."
I'm thankful for the wisdom my years have brought, and I hope I will continue to see that for many, many more.
** If you have never heard of Sunscreen, I highly recommend you check it out. It is a song based on a column published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1st, 1997. The original column was titled Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young, written by Mary Schmich. The song is titled Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen), but much more commonly known simply as "Sunscreen". It is written in the form of a commencement address; the words can be found HERE, and the video on YouTube HERE.
I do intend to return to the previous course of conversation soon, because there are more directions I need to go with it. However, this post is to be a simple reflection on aging and wisdom.
Tonight I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with some friends, which was fitting, considering my birthday tomorrow. I won't spoil it for you, but the general story is about a man who is born old and spends the rest of his life growing younger, all the way into infancy. Other than that curious detail, in my opinion it is a cross between Forrest Gump and The Notebook.; if you enjoyed either of those films you will like this one.
I wondered tonight, is there any age I would return to? Sometimes I think that advice titled Sunscreen** is all too true. Especially the part about not being as fat as you think you are. I loved ages 7 and 12 and 19, each for different reasons. Would I go back? Well, for the health, for the body maybe, but I wouldn't trade my wisdom for anything. The years we go through thinking our parents are stupid soon pass, and today I look at a 19 year old and think how immature they seem. But then, I think, my mom looks at me that way, and I find myself looking forward to having as much more wisdom at 60 than I do at 38 as I feel like I have at 38 compared to 19 years old.
Life is hard, and the things that give us wisdom are generally the most difficult things we endure. However, they bring something we cannot buy, cannot learn in books or earn by working. They bring us an ability to look at the future in a way we cannot imagine when we are young. They give us the most valuable thing we will ever possess, something younger people seek out when they are lost in their inability to see beyond their own noses.
And it is never too late to be something, as I have recently been finding for myself. Never too old to gain that which you dream of, or too old to change.
I went to lunch with a group of girlfriends from high school. We are all the same age, and even as I'm looking ahead towards dating and drivers licenses, two of them just married this year and are now expecting their first children. A third is just now pregnant with her second child.
I also know a woman who returned to college in her 60's to obtain her Master's degree.
I don't mind growing older. Yes, I have regrets, but regretting something doesn't change it. I have learned to be comfortable in my own skin and to am beginning to appreciate my positive traits. I'm am now seeking that thing which I'm supposed to do next; I don't know what it is but I have great anticipation of something good.
Or as it is said in Benjamin Button:
"It's never too late, or in my case, too early, to be whatever you want to be."
I'm thankful for the wisdom my years have brought, and I hope I will continue to see that for many, many more.
** If you have never heard of Sunscreen, I highly recommend you check it out. It is a song based on a column published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1st, 1997. The original column was titled Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young, written by Mary Schmich. The song is titled Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen), but much more commonly known simply as "Sunscreen". It is written in the form of a commencement address; the words can be found HERE, and the video on YouTube HERE.
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