Happy Birthday to Me!

Tomorrow is my birthday.  I'll be 62.  There...that gets it over.

62.  Sixty-Two.  Six Score and Two.  7th decade of life.

I've gone beyond "you look good for your age" to "dang, man--you're old!"

Beyond professorial to doddling.

I have the body of a 20 year old...it's at home, in the freezer.

So what does it mean to be 62 in today's world?

It means you remember what cooking was like before microwaves.  You know what to do to with a rotary phone (or even what a rotary phone is).  You remember when there were 3 channels and always got mad when a Presidential address pre-empted all three channels.

At 62, you're a member of the Baby Boomer generation and proud of the work ethic that it seems to imply.  You might have gone through hardship but probably not too much.  Your parents made sure of that.

62 means that you aren't bothered as much by the senior citizen discounts or the constant AARP solicitations. 

62 means that you have no more time to waste in getting healthier.  The Grim Reaper now knows your name.  It means that you have no claim whatsoever on the term Middle Aged.

Oh, I don't feel so old.  I still ride my bike farther and faster than pretty much everybody around here (no disrespect David, Steve, Emil, Trent, and Barry-all of whom can kick my butt any day, any time). 

I have held up pretty well, if I do say so myself.

I still do 2-3 CrossFit workouts a week with buddies, most of which are quite a bit younger than me.  You'll have to ask them what it's like to keep up with the old man.

Biking, hiking, backpacking, paddleboarding, fly fishing, writing, painting, stained glass, gardening, farming....my interests are all over the place.

So what's next?

I still love my job, so retirement is still way off in the future.  I do want to travel more.  There's some places I haven't seen yet that are on my bucket list.  I still study and read constantly-fearful of growing irrelevant.

I've come to a better understanding of all those Gen Y's and Gen X's that now make up most of the work force.  The fact that they don't mow their own yard and cook far less often does not mean that they are lazier or less driven than we were.  It simply means that their values are different.

They value their personal time, their family time, and their down time.  My generation doesn't know what to do with down time. Or if we do, we just lay around and get fat.

If the 20-somethings and 30-somethings do something, they do it well.  They're smarter, better educated, more innovative, and much more likely to change the world. 

Sounds like a formula for me to follow for the next 62 years.

Hopefully you can teach an old dog new tricks.