“Sixty Years On” Elton John

Getting older is never easy at virtually any age after 30.  As I begin to reach new milestones in my life, (my 60th birthday is less than one month from now), it is a constant reminder of one’s mortality. It certainly doesn’t help one’s mood, if one recalls what classic rock/folk music has had to say about aging over the years:

I hope I die before I get old   (Pete Townshend)

Who’ll walk me down to church when I’m sixty years of age?
When the ragged dog they gave me has been ten years in the grave….
I’ve no wish to be living sixty years on.  (Elton John)

Old friends, winter companions, the old men.  Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun…
Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy…
Old friends, memory brushes the same years, silently sharing the same fears (Paul Simon)

 Will you still need me , will you still feed me, when I’m 64.(Lennon/McCartney)

Time, time, time, see what’s become of me…
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter  (Paul Simon)

That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door.  (Bob Dylan)

God in heaven teach me how to die!  (Bloodrock from “DOA”)

 

Yikes! Are you depressed yet? And this is but a few of the many songs about aging (and dying) which aren’t exactly upbeat. So, I decided that getting older was not going to get me down and I would look towards my 60th birthday as a happy time.  However, I wouldn’t do so by kidding myself as the popular media does now by saying that 50 is the “new 40” and 60 is the “new 50”  and therefore is just late middle age. Really? So if your 50s is middle age, then I can expect to live to be 100-120 years old? Only if I move to a small village in northern Finland, weave baskets and eat lots of Dannon yoghurt!

So rather than ignore or obfuscate the fact that I am clearly getting “old”, I plan on relishing and celebrating all the advantages as I turn 60 next month. In order to do so, I have created a TOP TEN list (my apologies in advance to David Letterman) of “The Top 10 Advantages of Turning 60”.

10. You can always get a table at your favorite restaurant at 5 PM , your new favorite time for dinner.

9. Your wife looks prettier than ever, particularly when you forget to wear your glasses.

8. You lose your keys but then you forget that you lost them, so it doesn’t matter.

7. You don’t have to listen to your wife’s complaints any more that you aren’t listening to her, because you can’t hear her anyway.

6. You start to actually look experienced and wise.

5. Gray doesn’t clash with any color combinations.

4. You can start rereading all the great books that you read 10-20 years ago, because you completely forgot that you ever read them.

3. You realize that Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richard are all MUCH older than you.

2.  You can cite your nearly 35 years of experience in the energy and environmental fields, as support for virtually any statement you make at work. 

AND THE  NUMBER ONE ADVANTAGE OF TURNING 60 is (drumroll)………………………………..

1. Um…I forgot.

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Finally, I will leave you with one of my favorite songs and one of the few upbeat songs about aging by that well-known philosopher Jerry Garcia:

 Oh well, a touch of grey. Kinda suits you anyway.

That’s all I had to say but it’s alright.

I will survive. I will survive. I will survive. I will get by.