October 9, 2008
After watching a college football game on television recently, I had an epiphany about aging, and turns out it is a lot like a football game.
My epiphany-- one has to finish the game strong.
This sudden intuitive leap of understanding happened when I found myself groaning at the television screen and yelling at my favorite football team, "Do not give up a junk touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter. What are you thinking? Come on. Play to win until the very end!"
Hey, pile on the points on offense while you are at it, too.
You see after decades of life on this planet, boomers like me are learning to live in the present and simply "going for it" and are trying to finish the game strong. In football speak, we want plenty of scoring from our offense even in the fourth quarter. That is how one plays the end game.
Show us the points!
I say timidity should be gone once the halftime show is over anyway. Let's play hard until the end whether it is in life or in football.
Much easier this way! So, why didn't we think of this before? We could have been happier.
In addition to liking lots of action late in life, we boomers are evolving into steady, balanced, positive individuals who no longer worry much at all about what people think. We just want to enjoy ourselves.
Yes, interestingly enough, we seem to be more content and less lonely or depressed than we ever have.
I remember when I first noticed my parents behaving in a similar manner.
When the original "Peoples' Court" went into rerun several years ago, my dad would not miss it, and every afternoon at 3:30 he had to be in his chair to watch.
One day I said to him, "Why are you watching this ridiculous show every day Dad? You have never been interested in afternoon television before, and this is just a farce. Everyone knows these people are just plain silly. This is not real. It is all for the theatrics."
I had a lot to learn back then.
He never blinked and answered, "Because I like it and because I can."
Similarly, I never understood until now why he and my mother would pick up "at the drop of a hat" and drive to somewhere they had never been with absolutely no plan in mind.
Why did they embark on second and third careers when they could have been idle in their retirement? Why did they buy a lot on an undeveloped lake from a complete stranger while on a Sunday afternoon drive? Why did they learn computer technology in their 70's? What was the point?
Today, I know the answer to all these questions--never allow a junk touchdown at the end of the game and pile on as many points as you can while on offense.
Eureka!
