Getting older is a slow-rolling shock for most of us…
I’m a little weaker, have a few more wrinkles, I’m getting shorter (oh yay), and yet my mind for some reason still doesn’t believe that I’ve aged at all. That is, until I accidentally catch my reflection in a store window and reality slaps me in the face – that’s the shock part… bummer.
But lately I’m finding that I’m really ok with getting older, even glad that I’m at the age I am.
Last week for example, I was at one of those outdoor malls and had just walked out of the vacuum store with some bags for my old Hoover.
As I headed to my car, a mom and her two young girls walked past me.
All three were carrying groceries. The mom had a gallon of milk in one hand and two big white plastic bags of groceries in the other. The youngest who looked to be around 6 or 7 was carrying a small bag.
Trailing behind was the older daughter who was around 10 or so. She was carrying a half-full plastic bag of groceries and complaining loudly the whole way.
“Mom this is too heavy, this is too much work, I don’t want to do this”. “Mom, MOM! She just kept repeating it in a whiny, high pitched, (and very annoying) voice.
When I got to my car, I caught the eyes of the 10 year old and said “Wow, you’re so strong and helpful to your mom”. She didn’t say anything, she just looked at me and kept walking up the sidewalk towards her mother. After a few steps she started up again “It’s not fair, this is too much work!”.
The mom just kept going and didn’t say a word.
I was struck by the mom’s strength in her silence. She didn’t coddle the girl and say “oh, you poor baby, I’ll carry it for you” and she didn’t get upset either, she just kept walking with a kind of “knowing” that the girl would follow her even though she complained the whole way.
I pulled out of my parking spot and as I drove past them, I noticed the 10 year old had put the groceries down and was now sitting on a brick planter playing with a leaf that she’d found. Mom glanced over her shoulder at her. I knew the mom wouldn’t leave her there, but she and the little sister kept on walking.
I genuinely felt bad for that mom. In my mind’s eye I had a flash of them at home – the younger daughter sweet and helpful, and the other one a complainer. Now THAT, is a lot of work. Of course I don’t actually know how they are at home, but it seemed plausible to me in that moment.
It was nice to witness this stoic mom walking up the sidewalk teaching her daughter responsibility. I have huge respect for that woman because she’s actually doing the hard part.
As I drove away it got me to thinking. I don’t know why my brain went there – but it did…
This is 2026, when that 10 year old girl is my age (about 58 years from now) she will have found out what “too much work” really is. The year will be 2084, twenty eighty four! – what a concept.
I already wonder what MY life will be like in just 16 years from now when I’m 84!
I’ll be long dead by 2084 – whew!
I’m a little nervous about what the world will look like in my 80’s but I’m curious too. All I know is, the last of us Boomers, Joneses, and GenXers will see some crazy shit in the next 20 years!
Beyond that, imagine what the world will look like in 2084 when today’s children are senior citizens.
Will it finally be the Jetsons? It’s all moving so fast it’s hard to say.
The kids growing up today (like that 10 year old) won’t know any different though, just like every generation that came before us couldn’t comprehend the earlier times that their parents had lived through either.
That’s because we all adapt to the circumstances we find ourselves in at the time. It’s just the nature of life – we grow into and evolve with whatever time period we’re living in.
And funny enough, these will be their “good old days”, and they too will probably be annoyed with the younger generation. It reminds me of “Mother’s Curse” which is: “I hope you have kids that are just like you” – lol!
It made me think about my grandmother.
Grandma was born in 1906. I remember when she would talk about her “good old days” – traveling in buckboard wagons, big family gatherings, their first motorcar. What she missed the most was the slower rhythm of everyday life.
The changes Grandma saw in her lifetime were massive: from horse-drawn buggies, to fast cars and traffic jams. From letters to telephone operators and party lines to rotary phones and the first cellphones. From radio programs to black and white TVs and color TVs – all the way into the personal computer age, rockets and satellites.
By the time she died, her world no longer resembled the life that she knew growing up.
She lived to be 94 and was more interested in seeing the millennium than she was to living to 100 years old. And she made it into the year 2000 – then passed away one month later in February. I guess it’s good to have goals – lol!
But she was tired at the end and rightly so. She told me that she was ready for the next world… and for her next adventure.
So, when I say, “I’m glad I’m old” what I’m really saying is…
…that I’m grateful to have gotten to live during simpler times too, when (relatively speaking) everything moved slower and there was still a sense of innocence in the world.
Like us kids looking forward to watching “Mutual of Omaha” on Sunday nights because that meant “Disney” was on next – and they were both in color!
…growing up in Colorado back when Telluride and Aspen were just cool little mountain towns,
… or when Vail raised their lift ticket prices to $30 cuz, you know, they had to keep the riff-raff out – poor people like me and my friends.
But that was ok. We went to Cooper Mountain AND Copper Mountain where lift tickets were only $16. We skied all day in our (non-stretchy) blue jeans and puffy goose-down coats – no crowds, and no lift lines. It was great!
I must admit though, there are many aspects to “living in the future” today that I do love like certain modern conveniences and technology, but I’ll probably get tired of it all too – eventually.
The world right now might seem like it’s coming unraveled, but every generation has gone through its own version of big scary changes. They were always too fast, always dramatic, and always exhausting.
I feel that everything happening today is just part of a much bigger shift; one that will forge something better, more balanced and more stable. History is full of moments like this – change is funny that way.
Time will march on, cycles will begin, end, and begin again, and the grandkids and great-grandkids will be just fine. They’ll adapt and evolve with it… it’s nature’s way.
I have faith in the children growing up today, even if I don’t always see it right now. The upcoming generations will survive and carry on to do great things.
Maybe they’ll even get the flying cars and robot maids named Rosie that we always wanted… it certainly looks like it could happen. I can only hope.
Anyway, that’s just my perspective.
Peace.
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