Okay, not so much a curse but just a pain in the ass. Like a boil. I think that is most frustrating about getting older is having wisdom (aka the experience of doing something stupid…) and seeing people you know and love do something stupid. Maybe that same stupid thing. And you think – If I could have his/her youth and know what I know now, I’d be a force to be reckoned with – you betcha.

Then, I wonder, why is it that we do piss it all away when we’re 20 or 21 or 22 and think with our libidos, our livers, or our adrenals? Is what I’m feeling regret? Or just envy? Or maybe it’s the insane desire to “make it all right.” Whatever it may be, it’s damned frustrating.

All I can do is turn around and look at my life and wish for more days and more years to do it all – to get it done, whatever “it” may be.

There is a wise woman in my life who says that things will happen when they do, even if we will them to go faster. She is older than I, and I wonder if she is any more frustrated when people do stupid things. What I think I’m beginning to get is that people who are 20 years older than I are entering that phase of “let’s just sit back and watch the circus unfold.” They know that in the end, the best way to go about something is to work on it and let it go – let it happen. They get that all the worry and frustration is for the people who still have color in their hair. It’s almost as if they found the cruise control button and damn it, they aren’t afraid to use it. Some use it at 30 MPH and others at 70, to be sure.

I think that’s why I don’t dread getting older. Maybe Otto had it right…

“A fool learns from his experience. A wise person learns from the experience of others.” (Otto von Bismark, German Chancellor, 1815 – 1898)

Till next time, darlings…

-TDD