Gosh, I don't feel forty

But I guess that's just the nature of the beast. Most of us will experience this moment. . . when we stop for a second and realize that we actually are four decades ol. . . um. . . experi. . . err. . . seasoned.

I remember being much younger and interested in the year I would turn 33 -- because that was the year 2000 and the turning of the millenium. I don't guess I ever thought much further than that -- that I would someday turn 40. It doesn't really "feel" like 40, though. I wonder if most people "feel" forty or if it's just another birthday.

Forty does seem like it should be a milestone, however. It seems like it's a fairly "weighty" birthday because you're not just 30-something anymore. You're "forty" -- with all the gravitas and responsibility that seems to go with those numbers and that label. You're old enough to call kids "kids", although not old enough to go with "whippersnappers". =P You're old enough to remember the actual moon landing and the shuttle flights, Nixon and both Bushes, sex, drugs & rock -n- roll and Mrs. Reagan with her Just Say No campaign. I was just old enough to know that Viet Nam was some country "over there" but now I can understand a lot of the political implications that it had and can see a lot of the effects that shook out. Same with Colombia.

Forty is when you are old enough to raise kids, but don't have enough energy to do so properly. Forty is when you lie in bed at night and think. Forty is when you know stuff. You don't know everything, but you can sure do a lot of things.

Forty is when you see The Hill. You aren't on it yet, but you sure know what it looks like. You begin to find people and teach them the things that you know because you don't want anyone else to have to start from scratch like you did. You have stuff to teach and you don't mind because you are confident that the ones you are teaching to can't catch you anyhow. =P You can teach them all they know, but not all you know. You begin to say things like "when I was little, we counted change back to our customers !" And "I remember when gas was 93 cents a gallon !"

Forty is when fiction begins to get boring -- because you can figure it out before the book ends. You begin to read non-fiction for the history and because you can't make some of that stuff up ! You know who to call for whatever you need and you know how to set up a local network of people when you have to move somewhere else.

Forty is when you look back at all the things you've done and wonder how you ever made it this far.

I guess everyone deals with being forty in their own way -- they bring their own experiences, their own prejudices, their own memories. I'm just glad that I got here because it's been a heck of a ride so far.

Thoughts ?