Thought of the Day: For The Young

Everybody gets old and dies. Unless of course, they die! But the point is, it's a real locked-in phenomenon: you are either going to die, or get old, or both. Most of us: both.

I mean, shit. I realized that by the time I was 7 years old. It's not something that hit me at 30, or that's going to hit me later on when I turn 40 or 50.

So...what's the deal with people, making fun of other people for getting old? Are the people who do that just...I don't know...morons? Can the facts of the matter really not have occurred to them yet?

I was challenging my buddy on this, watching the Superbowl half-time show. He kept saying Daltrey looked like a corpse or something - bullshit! Daltrey looked like a vibrant and engaged high-school English teacher! Is this something to scoff at? I hate to say it, but that dude always had a few more facial features jutting out when he started a-howlin', than would ever have been considered appropriate to the beautiful ideal.

Is it just hangups about the process? Or, what it looks like? Man, I went to the beach a couple summers back, Jersey shore, and a couple of old european ladies came and set up towel and umbrella just a bit further down the strip of white sand, a respectful distance from us. And you know what, of all the nerve, they were both wearing bathing suits! And God forbid! One of them was a two-piece! So what: were they trying to be young?

Those two ladies were the coolest two on the beach. Me and my fellow sunbather agreed. They were there to enjoy the sun and sand and surf, chatting away. They knew they belonged, like anyone else. If anything, they seemed to belong more. They had a sense of peace in inhabiting the world, that I can only hope to pick up in my forthcoming decades.

Maybe I've just had an ancient mindset since I was a kid, but I have to tell all you wanna-be, wish-you-were-still whippersnappers out there, kissing the ass of the youths you no longer are (and by the way, they're not impressed by how cool you insist they are): if anybody out there thinks any of these staples of life is in some way reserved "For The Young," then you've got shit for brains, and I hope you fucking die early so you never have to deal with the pain of having to reevaluate or retract your bullshit youth-worshipping (ephebolatrous?) ways. A partial list of things that are not "For The Young":

1. Love.

2. Sex.

3. The beach.

4. Dancing.

5. Rock and roll.

6. Activism.

7. Faith.

8. Skepticism.

9. Alcohol.

10+. LITERALLY EVERY FUCKING THING ELSE THAT HAS BEEN DONE OR CAN BE DONE ON THIS PLANET.

They're not not for the young. They're just not reserved unto. The only thing on this planet that's reserved unto, that is pretty much exclusively "For The Young" is: the ass-headedness of thinking one's puny lil' self ain't ever gonna grow old (and I assure you: that's only for a select few of the young).

The sad fact? People with sad lives push off all fun things as exclusively for the young, as a plea to excuse why they have such sad lives. Then they take jealous potshots at anyone around them who has the stones and the self-confidence to know that the time to live fully is your whole life - and who acts accordingly. Now, I can understand the other potshots! - the ones from the up-and-comers, from the mindset of a young person just coming into a world owned by others, and who needs to bump back, or carve out, or whatever. Those potshots, I can understand. No problem. Certainly: no threat. Give the geezers a bit of stick, while you're pushing your way into that big bad world of theirs!

But equally surely: once you're past the age of 20, that's pathetic. At that point, you're not carving your right to be here, anymore. If you can't be comfy with the older set living their lives by the time you either are or ought to be out of school, then that's more about your discomfort at becoming them than anything else.

I thought I'd get that out of the way while I'm still technically young. A few more years down the road, it starts to look like I've got an axe to grind!