• your number has been discontinued

  ~ Can I see you I.D.?

He arrived at the bottom of a concrete staircase before his dirty bike did. (He was seated on that bike just a moment ago.) As his 59 year old chin gushed blood he learned a lesson. My good friend knows now that there are certain things that his seven year old is more adept at than he is.
    I have several long-time friends who turn 60 this year or last and some who at 59, are bemoaning the coming zero on their age. Meanwhile, another buddy is spending a year celebrating being 65. He likes to refer to himself as “one wild olde man.” (He thinks the “e” on “olde” is fun.) But the the only thing old about him is the number indicating the amount of years he has been on earth. He is a very young life force.
    I was with him last week and asked his wife if she’d mind if I suggested he NOT say “old” for at least five more years. (In his case I do not expect him to even seem old for a decade or more hence.)
    “You have my permission to have that conversation with him.” She said with a smile and an emphatic poke to my chest to seal the deal.
    It wasn’t a few minutes later, when we were in his office, and he slipped the “old man” reference into a self referential comment as though it was more that silly “settled science” that’s going around like the flu. Borrowing his wife’s encouraging poke I looked him in the eye and said, “There is NOTHING OLD about you except that number indicating your time on planet earth. I want you to get a new moniker, YOUNG man. No one who knows you or meets you, finds you “old.”
    “I can accept that from you.” He said.
    I was expecting a bit of a debate, but he got it.
    It all grew out of my own birthday on the fourth day of this year (sound familiar, John & Marti?) I turned a certain age and wanted to commemorate it appropriately. I called CalTrans, the state agency that builds, repairs, and “maintains” California roadways.
    “I'm looking for a “55 mph Speed Limit” sign. Have you got an old one in the bone yard I can have?”
    “55? I haven’t seen one of those in a while. Mostly it’s 65 now. What do you need it for.”
    I told him about my birthday and that I wanted to commemorate it by hanging a big sign in my loft.
    “I think your number has been discontinued.” He said.
    “Really?”
    I don’t think so. My age, your age, they’re just numbers. They represent only the passage of time, signifying nothing.*
    Age is neither a badge of achievement,  a sign of maturity, nor an indication of looming obsolescence. Our age is not like the “use by” date on the milk in the fridge.
    I was struck by the importance of this double helix age of 55 when I went to the Holistic Institute for a massage in the student clinic a few days after my birthday in January. I had a $15 discount from their having canceled me a few days previous due to a staff shortage. But upon arrival I noticed a sign on the reception desk that, I suspect, had been there for all the years I’d been coming there.
    “$5 Discount for Seniors (55 yr.)”
    “Hi, reservation for McNair. And I’ll take one of those.” (Pointing to the senior discount sign.)
    “Yeah, right.” The young man working reception laughed at me, clearly not believing I was 55.
    “What’s wrong? My birthday was last week.”
    “Sure, 45, maybe.” He said incredulously.
    “Look!” Pushing my California driver’s license in his face.
    He leaned over for closer inspection and, not believing what he saw, grabbed it out of my hand and said, “Let me see that.” Inspecting it closely and for long enough to read every word a couple of times, he looked up at me, and then back at my license for the red letters: DOB:01-04-52.“WOW! You don’t even look fifty. What do you do?”
    “Well, massages help. And I’ve never, ever understood what it meant when people say, ‘Act your age.’ And, I won’t grow up!”
    So, I am keeping a log of the discounts I get in this first year of being a “senior citizen”--such a silly demarcation for any year. I know old (acting) people in their twenties and thirties who are driven by career social status and have no sense of play or spontaneity. And I have delicious friends who are 59 and crack open their chin on the pavement when they beat their dirt bike gets down the steps.
    Meanwhile, my wild 65 year old buddy is still wild, but not yet old. 
    Neither are you, my friend.
    Do something young today. You assignment for this Easter weekend--a time of resurrection (noun) “revitalization; revival from inactivity and disuse.” Go out and do something young (even if your birth year is under 30, or under 18.)
    Whatever you do, Don’t act you age. Your number has been discontinued!

    McNair

P.S. The massage was great, even with the old guy discount.

P.S.S. If you've never done it, check out the wonderful website RealAge.com and take that Real Age Test to discover how old you REALly are.


* Macbeth by Wm. Shakespeare
   Act V, sc. 5

MACBETH:

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.--
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

~

Comments

[Wes Roberts]

...thanx...from your wild and wiser friend. :-) 'Tis hard to break olde habits...but the exhortation still rings. And thanks for being our friend...you wild young man you!!!

[nutster]

...do you really want ME to do something young this weekend? YOU need to watch out before you UNLEASH the HOUND!!!

Great post....you have given me a goal this weekend! DO something young.

[Daniel Neil Olson]

Huzzah!
I knew there was a reason this whole "loosing the chains" and death to death thing happened, oh, so long ago. Three cheerleaders for life and remembering to grow up and out, not apart and old.

[McNair]

Wouldn't you know it: I post a blog about acting young and not acting your age--at any age--and the first three commentaries come form three of the YOUNGEST spirits I know. Wes, Dan, and "Nutster" are the guys everyone else should be following around and emulating. L'Chaim!

[Pat Kirk]

Congratulations on a HAPPY birthday.

Several years ago, my granddaughter (about 10 years) drew a picture of me. She put several lines on my face and labelled it with the word "rinkles" complete with an arrow pointing to my face. I made her erase them. To this day, she teases me about it.

My mirror kindly doesn't show the "rinkles". I'll always be young to me.

[Colette]

Happy belated birthday ....and...there's a reason they say today's 50 is yesterday's 40, like that.

And there's a reason the old saying "You're as old as you feel" has been with us forever.

[anj]

You guys are all too young for me :)

[emily]

I finally went out this past
Saturday and started taking photos again ... and sometimes, I really forget how much I enjoy this ... and can sit for a long time in simple yet sustained revere ... astounded by the beauty in some of the "small things" captured by a box of light ...

Thanks, be well and Tally-ho! Emily