The Blessings of Being My Age

I am finding myself on the older side of life, and it occurs to me that there are benefits to being this old:

I got to grow up with the Beatles, the Doors, Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Mamas and the Papas, Steppenwolf, Heart, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Chuck Mangione, Janice Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Cat Stevens, Jefferson Airplane/Starship, Herb Alpert, Carole King, The Eagles, and hundreds more. And no Autotune! The soundtrack of my childhood and early life was amazing.

I witnessed the civil rights movement, the recognition that we need to treat all people like people. I witnessed the environmental movement, the recognition that we need to take care of our planet.

I, along with every other person on the Earth with access to a television, watched men walk on the moon. Live. We watched it collectively in a brief moment of worldwide unity. There was also something communal about regularly scheduled TV broadcasts. Everyone could discuss what they saw on last night’s episode of MASH or The Fugitive.

Growing up with no video games, no YouTube, no social media, we had to make our own entertainment: staying out on late summer evenings playing ball with your friends or attending scheduled social gatherings at movie theaters, state fairs, concerts, etc. And yes, those things still exist but they are much diminished from what they were when I was growing up. They are now secondary to the digital world. Back then, these things were events!

Then there were also personal events. Relationships. Heartbreak, but also finding real love. Having the heartbreak makes you appreciate the love. Not everything is for the best. You can’t always make lemonade out of lemons, but experience, both positive and negative, makes you who you are. If I had a magic pill that made me younger but took away those experiences, I don’t think I would take it. Because the younger version of me would not be me.

You say, this is all nostalgia. Yes, it is. Everyone of whatever era will find their own things to be nostalgic about (if they are lucky).

I have earned this age.

Star Liner

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