Growing old is fine

“Never mind your age, age is just a number; growing old is a mind over matter thing. If you don’t mind, then it doesn’t matter.”

Have you ever heard of this popular phrase most commonly uttered during birthday parties?

For those of you entering the age of 50, I am quite certain that you have heard of this or some of your friends have said this while they were enjoying their parties. I say only this: don’t believe them! Of course age matters. Unless you are a tree! If you don’t want to make it matter or pretend it’s not there, then there is a term for that: DENIAL.

Age does matter. And it is important to know the facts about growing old.

But first, let’s have some fun with the subject matter. There is this amusing material found in the Internet with an anonymous authorship.

THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING OVER 50:

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you. 2. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first. 3. No one expects you to run anywhere. 4. People call you at 9 p.m. and ask, “Did I wake you?” 5. You can eat supper at 4 p.m. 6. Your eyes won’t get much worse. 7. You can live without sex, but you cannot live without your reading glasses.

8. You no longer have to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room.

9. Your investment in health insurance is beginning to pay off.

10. Your joints are more accurate than the National Weather Bureau.

11. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they cannot remember them either.

12. And this is the biggest sign that you are already old: you cannot remember what I just said!

But these are no longer true. Let me give you the actual reasons why I don’t believe in these.

One person says, “People are living longer now; they have to - who can afford to die?”

The next time somebody tells you that you are getting old, chin up, look back at the person and say with full confidence, “I am not growing old, I am turning into a CLASSIC!” Not exactly. They say that a car is a statement. I believe so. But of course, everything else is a statement! Your clothes and your suits – they are statements. The handbag you carry is a statement. See how proud and happy those successful ladies are holding their expensive bags. These ladies have to cover the bag handles with scarves to protect the “newlybought” look.

That is a statement. Everything is a statement. The question is: what are you saying?

Felix, my brother-in-law, a retired US Marine and a car executive in Palo Alto, California, told me something I would never forget. He said, “When a man is rising up the corporate ladder and begins to attain a moderate level of success, you bet he’s driving a BMW, the official sign of success for a yuppie. When the same man marries, he switches to a Volvo because he wants safety for his family. And when the man divorces his wife and enters his mid-life crisis, the car becomes a Ferrari.”

This is not necessarily true. It depends on how you look at it.

When Felix was in his mid-forties and driving a Honda Roadster, his envious friends suspected him of entering his mid-life crisis. A grinning Felix replied, “No, I am not entering my mid-life crisis, I am simply telling you that “I HAVE ARRIVED!”

Many good businessmen and businesswomen have fallen prey into insecurity. They have grown old and felt the need to leverage their wealth on things and lifestyles that can make them young again. This is not a good thing.

To be insecure about one’s age is illogical and senseless yet so many people have fallen prey to it.

Don’t be afraid of getting old. We need to be afraid of growing irrelevant.

Longevity is now stretched. It’s normal today to find people living beyond their nineties.

Abraham Lincoln said, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” There is so much truth in that wise statement. Be positive. Be hopeful. Be helpful. Be encouraging. Refuse the temptation to be cynical, critical and skeptical. Be a blessing to the young, mentor them.

Here is the core of having life into years: continue to learn and be useful. Only productive people are happy and this cuts across ages.