ON BECOMING A CLASSIC!


Ever notice how our artistic tastes change as we age? Everything from what we read to the music we listen to and what we watch on the big and small screen. Hopefully most of us begin to favor more sophisticated, intellectually and culturally stimulating fare.

The music I thought was so awesome, that my parents despised or just couldn't understand, has now become as irritating and cacophonous to me as it was to them. Their artistic tastes have now become mine! ( OMG!)

So much of what we enjoy in our youth consist of so much fluff; superficial, trivial, superfluous foolishness that manages to pass itself off as sumptuous and necessary.

I remember getting a kick out of reading all of the Charlie Brown/Peanuts Gang books I could get my hands on when I was a little kid. I also thought they were the deepest most philosophical piece of literature that existed.

Think of some of the things of importance in your youth and how they've magically morphed into something entirely different or completely disappeared altogether.

Things that I once swore by, clung to and would fight for are no longer of any consequence whatsoever. Most have become major annoyances and disappointments when I discovered their profundity.

What was considered cool or hip now appears ridiculous and boorish. Things that I loved, I can barely stand to think about, see or listen to. What I sought and worked for has left me questioning its value.

So much of aging includes loss. We lose our fascination with the personalities and icons that we once admired. The reasons we admired them are because of the extraordinary qualities they possessed only to realize that even those qualities were subject to decline and decay. We realize that our idols are after all just as ordinary and human as we.

We lose loved ones, our physical strength diminishes and our senses become dull. We are in a constant battle to retain whatever we can.

Sometimes we may even lose our integrity. If our lives have been hard enough and we've been abused and disappointed enough, we might become cynical and bitter. We cease to give a damn about trying to do the right thing because we've witnessed so many getting away with doing wrong.

Yet in spite of all of these laments, there are some perks (albeit not many) that come with growing older.

If you're lucky there's a peace of mind that comes with being more comfortable in your own skin. You've worked hard to become who and what you are and if you're anything like me, you realize that you don't need to spend whatever time is left worrying about what people think about you. You probably realize they don't think about you very much at all.

In the words of Phyllis Diller: "Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out and spread out.

Realizing this perhaps we should follow the advice of Victoria Moran who says:

Judge less - or at least later
Give new ideas and images a chance
Understand that everyone has his or her own truth
Remember: You are not married to any belief, opinion or ideology
Expect to discover something delicious every day.