Is it just part of the human condition to be glad we're older when we're about middle-aged

[raccoon]

or therabouts, or is it just the times?

I'm getting close to 60, and occasionally I think I'm glad I'm the age that I am now, and not a young person. But I wonder if this is just something people experience in any century.

Your experience?



Edited for typo and clarity.

[Fumesucker]

1. There isn't much about getting older that is a great deal of fun..

You gain perspective, and perhaps wisdom.. But that's about the only really positive thing I can think of.

I don't particularly envy the younger generation today as to the future they apparently have in front of them.

If you can find the Clifford Simak story "Grotto of the Dancing Deer" that's a worthwhile read on what it might be like to be immortal.

http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/gdd.htm

[msedano]

2. carpe diem tempus fugit

i bet sometimes you look at the world and think about that 5 year old you looking through these same eyes, and you remember how it looked. i'm just now 63 and acutely aware that i have another 20+ years remaining.

if you enjoy reading, take a look at cicero's essay on aging, de senectute. he makes a telling point that bitter old men are bitter not because they grew old but because they were bitter young men.

antidote for the I'm gettng old blues: go put some beatles records on the turntable and sing along...

when i get older, losing my hair...

regards,
mvs

[El Pinko]

19. Fascinating that you would assume that you have 20+ years left...

...I'm 39 and don't assume that I'll make it past 45. I'll be happy if I do, and I take good care of myself, but there are no guarantees, and every year that passes raises the odds that it will be the last.

[grannie4peace]

3. i just had my 62nd birthday & am happier

i'm enjoying getting older. a whole lot :):):)

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I think it is the human condition.

We're emotionally equipped to handle what comes our way at various life stages.

Just by way of example, for a child to lose a parent is difficult and potentially life altering. For a 40, or 50, or 60 year old to lose a parent is sad but tolerable and soon enough just a warm memory.

[alfredo]

11. It also reminds the child that they are mortal.

[Crankie Avalon]

5. It's more just a silver lining type consolation...

...but if I could, I'd become young again in a second. I just turned 41 and have been wondering a little too much about roads not taken, lately.

If someone is glad to be old, it might be because they have no regrets, which is an enviable position to be in.

[Union Thug]

6. I interviewed a retired Boilermaker a couple of weeks ago who said...

...in his gruff, gear-grinding voice, "Whoever said these were the golden years was full of shit. The golden years are between 20 and 40. The rest is a downhill slide."

[slackmaster]

7. I wish I could re-live my young adulthood with the knowledge and experience I have at 50

I would have done a lot of things differently, I think.

Or not.

[Union Thug]

8. 50 is now on the radar for me...and I would change a lot of things...

given the opportunity to do it over again.

[raccoon]

10. Me too, but at the same time, I think I'd rather lay down and die than

have to do it all over again--especially given the lack of tools and resources I had at the time.

[Union Thug]

14. I can relate to that. We do the best we can with the cards we are dealt...

... but that doesn't soften the impact of the growing realization that so much potential was left untapped.

[EOTE]

9. I'm 29 and I feel the exact same way.

I guess it's mostly because I've made some really bad decisions. If I could start at high school again, I think I'd have a vastly different life.

[Fumesucker]

12. I'll be sixty pretty soon..

I wouldn't change anything, even though I had some pretty big fuckups..

Go and read some alternate history and you'll find that you can't change just one thing, every decision you make has an effect on everything from that point on.

One minor change and I could well be dead or quadriplegic, or not have my beautiful grandkids.

[raccoon]

16. Good point. I used to bitterly regret one particular decision I made, when I left a particular job.

But of course it's easy to look back and think, "How wonderful it would have been if I'd done/not done whatever." As you said, we can't know that, because of course things could have been worse.

I've read some alternate history and liked it. I think the reason people like it is that they kind of apply it to their own life.

[EOTE]

22. The butterfly effect doesn't always cause chaos.

Conversely, one minor change and I could well be extremely happy and content. There are few things I'd like to do more than erase some of my bigger fuck-ups. Who knows, I still might have that chance.

[alfredo]

15. I fucked my brains out back then. It was fun and exciting. Now

I'd rather not go through the whole routine,though the romantic aspects are still appealing. Now if presented the choice between a roll in the hay and an open faced roast beef sandwich, mashed potatoes, and green beans, I'd take the sandwich.

Remember the old joke about the young woman asking a very old man if he'd like super sex and he replied he'd take the soup.

I turn 64 in Feb.

This doesn't mean I don't enjoy a hump and giggle, I do very much. I just don't need it as much as when I was a young buck.

I do believe that as testosterone drops, intelligence increases. That crap makes men stupid.

I like the clarity of thought now. The body is pain wracked, but the mine is sharp.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. It is the best of times and the worst of times.

It's the time of life when, many of us, come, to terms with our own mortality. We finally figure out that, despite our best efforts, our dreams, our aspirations, that we're going to die. That all we've done doesn't amount to much of anything. That our lives have been less than a blink of the eye in the cosmic sense.

Some of us reconcile ourselves to that fact, have a good laugh about our youthful egomania, and get on with living the last years as fully as we can.

It's called humility, hard earned, but well worth it.

[El Pinko]

17. Maybe if you're very positive-minded or believe in an afterlife...

I don't mind a few crow's feet or gray hairs. but the eventuality of becoming decrepit and infirm, and then completely and irrevocably dead and nonexistent is not appealing to me at all, so no, I am not happy to be closer to the end of my life than at the beginning. I have a great life and enjoy every day of it and all the people in it, so why be happy about losing it.

I do know a lot of older people who have the attitude you describe. I kind of hope I do when I get a bit older, but I kinda figure maybe I will do so by default because the only alternative is utter despair, and wallowing that would be a TOTAL waste of precious time.

[cobalt1999]

18. I think it is more about the person's attitude.

Some folks have a negative attitude and are never happy. Either they are too young, too old, not married, married, no kids, kids, etc.

Some folks have a attitude where they enjoy and appreciate life as they go along.

Sounds like you fall into the former group (same as me), good for you.

[stuntcat]

20. I'm 37. Personally I'm gladder every day.

I turn 38 in a couple of weeks :party: I'm just glad I'm not a little kid, I pity the children I see and can feel no respect for their parents.. or even love when it comes to my family, I feel nothing but fear and disrespect for people who keep giving the rest of this century to innocent little kids.

Of course us lucky 1st-worlders will be the last to pay for our wasteful way of life but before long we'll all be paying, even the lucky rich Americans. Only the real 100% PIGS will still be saying the mass-extinction we caused doesn't matter and that our raping the Earth was God's will.

Every morning I wonder if I can possibly be more disappointed in my species, and then by the end of the day I'm just amazed.. amazed no GOD has come and wiped us out for fucking the world so bad.

I have to watch this meltdown until 2040 or 2050, but the babies have to be here until like 2090.

[Warpy]

21. While there is no way I'd want to be that clueless again

I would love to have the body I had at 20, not the shape or the attractiveness, just the body that didn't hurt all the time.

I'd like to be able to run, to race up and down stairs, to dance.

There is no justice to life. At 20, when we're ignorant of all the things life is about to do to us, we really should have the bodies of age to slow us down and keep us from making so many boneheaded mistakes. When we have the wisdom that comes with picking our way through the minefield we call life, we need to have the agile bodies that would allow us to exercise that wisdom to its fullest.

Alas, the opposite is true. There is no way I'd choose ignorance to gain health. I just wish the reality had been different.

[raccoon]

23. "If youth but knew, if age but could!" nt