Well jeez... after my birthday on Tuesday I thought I would write something profound about turning 40, after my Significant Other (SO) and my son (SOv.1) and daughter (SOv.2) came to take me to lunch. But profundity escaped me then and has elluded me for the past few days.
But I did have a nice birthday. My SO made sure that many of my friends knew I was turning 40 by emailing out a picture of me looking rather demonic, an "oh my God I can't be this old" smile on my face, alongside my lovely sister who had just passed on the "This is what 40 looks like" T-shirt. We can thank SO's mother for finding the shirt and giving it to her oldest who then passed it on to SO who then passed it on to his younger brother, in turn it went to my sister then to me last Saturday. It will go to my sister's SO in just a year and a half. So no smirking bro!
I recall starting my graduate degree at SDSU and being a little overwhelmed by the youth there! And I was 28 then! I remember walking around the campus on the first day looking at all the teenaged freshmen, in their high heeled boots (they were in for a brief period in the 90's if you remember) and short skirts - no they weren't hookers in broad daylight - and their smug "I'm so hot and I'm gonna get laid whenever I wanna" attitudes and thinking, "Gals, time and gravity. Happens to everyone." But certainly I didn't contemplate that I would get THIS old, I was just thinking that they would all get as old as I felt then, being ten years older than most of them! Funny how as human beings somehow you don't really believe the rules apply to yourself... this is the primary problem in Washington at the moment...
But, no. Nothing really eyeopening to add to the discourse on aging. All I can say is I love my friends, many who emailed with good wishes, I love my SO and the kids - SOv.1 and SOv.2. I love my family who all came to spend the day with me on Saturday before my birthday. When it comes right down to it, its ALL about your relationships with the ones you love and as I lift my fingers, and move on to my toes to count the ones I love and who seem to love me back, I find I run out of appendeges on which to number them and find I am really, really, really lucky. I have a lot of 'people' and that is the prize I get for my birthday.
4 comments:
I love you, Missy! BTW, do you remember a plot we had when we were 18 and broke? Risque, no, wait- illegal... ah, when we were young and invincible! Thank goodness we didn't make bad on that plan, hm? xoxoxo D-Doll
Hey! I didn't even know it was your birthday!!! Well, we're new friends, so you won't hold it against me, right? First off, Happy happy. I'm a fall baby, too. But I'm in November. And I think you had something very valuable to add to the discourse on aging. It's not who you know, but who you love and who loves you. As simple as that. It's funny. The more opportunities there are to talk about myself, the less I want to do it. Oh, look at that. I just did. Anyway, my point is that maybe the more enlightened we get with age, the less we need to have a discourse about aging and all the issues that go with it. Although, I do think there needs to be some sort of movement in this country to recalim our elderly as people, too. Not just aging rock stars...but the serious elderly in our lives. They are invisible and it must be stopped. Hmm..reminds me that I need to finish my film. Well..break over. - Arianna
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