Category: Life

No, this is not going to be a post about getting older. I like to joke about the torment of the march of time, but truthfully I am okay with it — good genes and a refusal to dress in (so-called) age-appropriate clothing helps.

Well, actually, it is going to be a post about aging, but not a maudlin one. (Much Music is playing the hits of the 80s as I type, but I am trying to keep my emotions in check.)

This past weekend I was at my cousin’s house. He and his wife were hosting a birthday party for their adorable two year-old daughter.

As the kids ran around shrieking and jumping in a giant inflatable bouncy thing — what are those things called anyway? — the adults chatted, ate tasty foods and drank cocktails. And it suddenly struck me: we are the adults. We are the hosts now. We are the ones buying the ice cream from the ice cream truck.

Sure there were grandparents there, but the majority of people were my contemporaries. My cousins and I were not the ones running around like — well — kids. We own the houses. We (well, not me) have the kids, we’re the ones pouring the drinks and we’re the ones bouncing the babies (again not me — although I did hold one of them briefly — but there was a fair bit of bouncing going on).

No, it doesn’t feel like yesterday that we were celebrating one of our birthdays, but it sure doesn’t feel like ancient history either. Looking at my cousins, I saw the kids that they — we — were. It’s not hard to see the child in adults you’ve known your whole life. And it’s impossible not to notice when they’re laughing.

Now the kids have kids and the grandparents — the lucky ones — are enjoying their grandchildren and relaxing. Someone else is in charge of things

A similar — but less strong — feeling came over me a few months ago at work. We are the ones having this meeting. We called it. We’re discussing this and we’re going to make it happen. If this gets screwed up, it’s on us. Of course we have bosses, but they’re not sitting in here with us.

Yeah, I know.

I wonder how I’ll feel when one of my cousins becomes a grandparent — totally freaked out I imagine.

The march of time. We’re lucky we’re still on the journey.

Today we were talking about the typical Friday stuff — high school boyfriends, peaking in yours teens, self-destructive behaviour in our adolescent peers that extended into adulthood, self-esteem, blue eye-shadow, long hair as well as fried blonde hair, being self-aware and living an authentic life…

Kinda like an Oprah show mixed with the DSM-IV.

Yeah, I know. We’re an interesting bunch.

I’m thinking a bit more about some of the quite varied topics discussed…

Someone mentioned this piece of wisdom: Start as you mean to finish — do things at the get-go the way you plan to do them at the end. I’m not always so good at this. Sometimes I start like a house on fire and end up with a little pile of singed sticks. Other times, I am far too enthusiastic and I end up doing something I’d rather not.

That comment made me think about something I read a few weeks ago: All relationships – personal, professional, romantic, with your electrician – end as they start. Reflect on that. It’s true, isn’t it?

There’s some lesson here. I think it has to do with being your authentic self — something I am pretty good at, as I can’t keep my light under a bushel — or rather my quirks from spilling out from my half-full glass and staining the carpet.