When I turned 40, they said that "40 is the new 20" and I guess I beleived it... tried to live it even... (i.e. mid-life crisis), though I steadfastly denied it. Then, they said that "50 is the new 30". Oh, Yeah? Da Nile isn't just a river in Egypt! I'm a realist if nothing else... 40 is not the new 20 and 50 is not the new 30... 50 is just 50. If I want to tell myself anything about my upcoming 50th birthday that will make me feel any better, it's this... a lot of people started out with me... and a lot of them are taking what Tony Soprano so eloquently called a "a dirt nap" (i.e. they are dead) and I'm still here.
When I was a child I couldn't imagine the world we live in today... compact discs, dvds, cable TV, cell phones, instant messager, downloading music, personal computers, i-phones, blackberries, etc. I remember being seven and my science teacher telling us about the year 2000 (mind you, this was 1965 and she was talking about the year 2000). "In the year 2000, most of you will be in your mid-forties", she said. "FORTY?" I was only seven and to me, TEN sounded like old age!
Now, I'm finally in the last few months of my forties and 50, which I hadn't ever conceptualized, is on the horizon. I tell myself that it's just another day. Yeah, the things we tell ourselves so that we can cope.
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