Man, I don't want to get old. I've spent the last week visiting family/family friends, which means most of the people I've been interacting with for the past week are 50+. Consequentially, I've been thinking about getting old. I've decided that probably the worst aspect of aging, aside from that whole deteriorating body thing, is losing connections. When we're young, we're seemingly surrounded by people we know via school, parties, and a generally active lifestyle. However, as far as I can tell, when you get older you have to stop dicking around and getting drunk with friends all the time, you move away from people, you start a career, you get boring. You lose connections, and suddenly all you do for fun is plan dinner dates with another married couple. My grandparents made the point to me that, aside from being young, the best time of your life will be early retirement, which, for them, was apparently just hanging out and fixing up their house (it's these insights that make old people somewhat frightening to me). I don't know what transformation you undergo through your middle ages that makes such a scenario sound thrilling by the end of it, but it sure as shit sounds like a transition I don't want to suffer. I dunno, maybe it all has something to do with the maturation process; maybe at a certain point you get so tired of doing shit that doing nothing becomes inexplicably entertaining. Maybe it's something you just don't understand until get there, but, man, I don't want to get old.
Re-reading this, I just feel like a distraught alcoholic who found out that everyone he knows is planning an intervention.
Anyway, here's some punk music to keep you (and me) feeling young:
The Soft Boys were a short-lived, early post-punk band that released a great album in 1980 called Underwater Moonlight, which Matador reissued in 2001 with an expanded title, added outtakes, and a bonus disc with all sorts of extra shit, and if you don't have it, you should
Underwater Moonlight...And How It Got There (disc 1)Underwater Moonlight...And How It Got There (disc 2)
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I think that transformation occurs over decades of hard work that leaves the human body and mind gasping for a break that spans the remainder of the lifeliver's existence. That is, unless that life is involved in some kind of epic mortal v. fantasy facedown, in which an aged man has to summon up the strength and tenacity of the young fellow he once was, only to fail and be crushed under foot of today's challenges which he can't comprehend nor handle.
ReplyDeleteI think that's all in the bible somewhere, you should consider reading it.