Mood: ‘Right Place, Wrong Time’ by Dr. John
What Is 50 Supposed To Feel Like?
I have been fortunate enough to live past half a century of life, damn near into my sixth decade. When it was my 50th birthday, my brother Doug called to wish me a happy day and during the course of the following conversation he asked what it felt like. Doug was two years older than I. I said it didn’t really feel any different than 49, or even 45, 40 or 30. he said something along the lines of he felt the same and do I remember when we were in our late 10s and early teens how old 50 sounded and what it was supposed to look like and what our voices were supposed to sound like and so on?
It is amusing to think at this point in life. Still full of vigor, still full of life, still pretty much the same person from Way Back. I’ve always had a connection with music for as far back as I can recall. I’ve always been a voracious reader for as far back as I can remember. I’ve always written things in one form or another for as far back as I can recall. I’ve been a completionist for as far back as I can recall. From the original G.I. Joe figures in what has become known as 1/6 scale figures to the more realistic Hot Toys figure of Star Wars, the Marvel movies and other cinematic interests still hole a place in my creative mind.
What has changed other than the wear and tear on the body as joints go and doing what were once regular activities now make you recall muscles for the next few days after? Well, gray hair for one and less of it. Maybe taking responsibility more seriously. I suppose those things termed “maturity”. Honestly, that was just something that ‘happened’ with experience, I think. Accidents, loss of loved ones, heartbreaks, moving, and so forth.
But…I am still me, the me I have been for quite a while.
What’s With All the Olde Musik?
This has changed somewhat in the last almost ten years, but I used to get comments on a lot of the rock music I listened to from The Youngsters. Y’know, ‘that stuff is old’ and so forth. First, think on this: how many great memories of your past are associated with the popular tunes of the day? I am pretty sure when I am in my 90s and 100s those tunes will still bring me happiness, the happiness of nostalgic days, days that are and will be a part of me.
Something funny happened in 2014, though. Guardians of the Galaxy was released and suddenly ‘old tunes’ were popular again. 🙄
Don’t get me wrong, I am pleased they are getting a small rebirth, and I hope people have been inspired to delve deeper into the 70s and 80s pop tunes, what with Spotify and Amazon Music and countless others. It was just quite amusing to have those who disdained the music one day suddenly be enraptured the very same tunes. These days, I work with several people who are about my age and older, along with several of The Youngsters, and getting to play 70s and 80s Pop, R&B, Rock and such musics is like a party at times, so all’s well, as The Bard tells us.
Where Does The Age of My Mind Fit In?
Believe it or not, all of the above stuff comes from this thought: what age do I fit in best with? Weird thought, maybe, but I realized not too long ago that when I was young, from 15 or so on, I was always more socially comfortable with those in their older 20s through their 40s and even beyond. It was harder to relate to those my age, I guess. Then, somewhere around 40 it flipped. I got on better with those younger than I. Well, not totally flipped, as I was still very comfortable with those my age, but the trend tended towards those younger. Not all choices were good ones, of course; the girl I fell in love with was 20 when I was 36, and we really got on well. Until the day after we moved in together and she took a summer job in the interior of Alaska. In a month, I found she had moved to Texas with her boyfriend, the guy that helped us move in together, sticking me with a years’ lease that I really couldn’t afford.
However, today I have three good friends that I consider to be brothers, when I am old enough to be their father, and that is just since I moved to North Carolina. One of my best friends ever is about the same age as those others, and is like unto another brother to me. These are all intellectually stimulating relationships as well, as so many of them have been, those older when I was younger and now those younger now I am older. Another thing that has remained constant from my youth through to today.
So, Now What?
I do not know if it is unique or not, but now having the opportunity of taking care of my parents more and more as they reach their halfway mark through their 80s, I get to witness what life likely has in store for me, as well. What I see (and have asked) is, other than the several physical infirmities and Dad’s short term memory issues, they are still ‘young at heart’ tempered with the experiences of age. As it does to all of us, Life does impose some changes on us, of course. But they do still feel the same, have the same interests, the same motivations and such, also not only believing they made it this far but expecting 80 the feel older than it does, not like they ever imagined it would be.
They are still themselves ‘In There’.
I suppose that is the point, and, pardon the language, fuck those who do not care to see that. If they can’t handle what is the you you always have been, then they do not deserve the splendor that is you.
Peace be unto you.
