He would have been 50 that year, right? Isn’t that usually a psychologically important age for most people which definitively separates the young and old?
I’ve been observing my parents’ rollover to 50 the last two years. As it happens, I’m also visiting them at this moment, so this is a salient dynamic to me. My stepfather has gone from hard ass to laid back from 50 to 52. My mother, looking at 50 is rearranging her priorities extensively. They’ve sold houses, left jobs, planned extensive vacations and so on. Priorities have shifted massively as have more general perceptions of life and success; both emphasize their age more and seem to use it as a social enabler to actually take on the early retirement they could have done years ago. They both point to their age, particularly the leading five when explaining themselves.
It is like a bit has flipped and this has been the background process in my mind since Wednesday when I flew out for a funeral. (Naturally, I could go on, given the family reunion status of funerals, the mix of ages and particularly the binary feeling of change you sometimes get when meeting people again after years.) So while this thought may be furthest from your mind meditations on “becoming an old man” have been a major component of mine.
Gosh, he must have grown up a lot in those 6 years since his 2005 commencement speech.
He would have been 50 that year, right? Isn’t that usually a psychologically important age for most people which definitively separates the young and old?
Did you know that the speech was only 6 years ago when you made your original comment?
I’ve been observing my parents’ rollover to 50 the last two years. As it happens, I’m also visiting them at this moment, so this is a salient dynamic to me. My stepfather has gone from hard ass to laid back from 50 to 52. My mother, looking at 50 is rearranging her priorities extensively. They’ve sold houses, left jobs, planned extensive vacations and so on. Priorities have shifted massively as have more general perceptions of life and success; both emphasize their age more and seem to use it as a social enabler to actually take on the early retirement they could have done years ago. They both point to their age, particularly the leading five when explaining themselves.
It is like a bit has flipped and this has been the background process in my mind since Wednesday when I flew out for a funeral. (Naturally, I could go on, given the family reunion status of funerals, the mix of ages and particularly the binary feeling of change you sometimes get when meeting people again after years.) So while this thought may be furthest from your mind meditations on “becoming an old man” have been a major component of mine.
You didn’t answer my question.
Yes.