Skip to main content

Too Old

I was in my bathing suit yesterday, doing my annual Spring/Summer cleaning of our wrap-around porch.  Being in my bathing suit while in DC brings ONE THING to mind – SLIP ‘N’ SLIDE!!!  I got a Slip ‘n’ Slide a few years ago for my birthday, and even though I have only used it a couple of times I really like it.  Both times we set it up, some neighbor kids came over to slide with us.

Well, yesterday when I thought of the Slip ‘n’ Slide, I wondered, “Will the little neighbor girl think she is too old this year to play on it?”. 

And that got me starting to think about the concept of AGE APPROPRIATENESS.  I realized that I never went though the stage of feeling “too old” for anything.  Here I am just a few weeks shy of age 48 and I can’t think of a darn thing that I am “too old” to play with or do.  Not only that, I don’t need to have a kid by my side to grant me access to anything, either!
  •         Bouncy house?  Lemme rip off these shoes – I am in!
  •         Blasting “Schoolhouse Rock” in the car and singing along at the top of my lungs??  Can someone say, “So I unpacked my ADJECTIVES!”
  •         Sloshing through rain puddles while wearing my wellies (rain boots)??  Hellz yeah!

I never examined it before, but I think being willing to participate in any activity or event – whatever “age it was designed for”, is a big part of what makes me who I am.  Where others may see an age limitation or boundary, I see none. 

Sure, there are some things that ONLY adults can do, such as drive or drink alcohol.  And there are some things that adults NEED to do, mammograms and paying taxes come to mind.  But as much as I wrack my brain, I can’t think of any fun thing that adults SHOULDN’T DO.

So I am happy to report that all of these things will continue to show up in my life and I will participate in them with abandon:  blowing soap bubbles, burying people in sand at the beach, sidewalk chalk art, attending as many circuses as I can find, and eating cupcakes.  My 8 year old neighbor might be “too old” for them, but I am not!







*If you now have “Unpack Your Adjectives” running around in your head, you can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkuuZEey_bs
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Content to Live

This is 59. Birthday photo 2025 - National Arboretum in the rain It is a strange age. It’s older than my sister Annette ever got to experience. It is on the verge of “old”.   Or wait, is it old?   Is it just that what “old” is keeps getting pushed back further and further, so actually we hit it a long time ago? I don’t feel “old”. But, as always for a decade or so, I feel “resolute”.   I feel “accepting”.   I feel realistic . I know my time on earth is limited, and I know I have used up over half of it. Some of it I wasted – watching movies but not really paying attention, sleeping, dusting (though to be honest I have not wasted much time on that one, one look at our house will tell you that). Some of it I relished - skiing down mountains, splashing in waterfalls and ocean waves, looking out at cornfields, clouds, and forests from high in the sky. Some of it I suffered – watching loved ones die, witnessing friendships fading away,...
1 comment
Read more

Damn Skin

I honestly don’t know how long it has been there.  David and I both have this sort of weird disassociation with time – him much worse than me.  But both of us really don’t have a handle on how long things are, how far in the past they were, etc.  It is like time blurs or something (which is why neither of us can ever, for the life of us, remember what anniversary we are on until we count back). So, filling out the blank on the processing questionnaire that asks “How long has this issue been there” is sort of impossible.  But how do you explain to medical professionals that you DON’T KNOW?  So I lie.  “Around a year, maybe a year and a half…”.  I could just write “Your guess is as good as mine”, but that would be even less helpful and harder to explain, so I assign a number.  So yeah, I have this “bump”.  That’s what I called it.  A “bump” on the right side of the bridge of my nose, very near my eye.  It has been there “for...
6 comments
Read more

The Girl Who Can't Ride a Bike

I am “the girl who can’t ride a bike”. I guess to be accurate, I should say that I WAS “the girl who can’t ride a bike”.   But it was such a big part of my identity growing up, that the never formalized (but often teased about) nickname stuck in my psyche. You know how most kids love to jump on their bikes and pedal around the neighborhood once they have figured out how to balance, brake, and GO?   Yeah, that wasn’t me.   I wasn’t that kid. I am not sure WHAT really happened. The one thing I do remember is being on a bike in my family’s garage in Omaha, Nebraska trying to ride my bike.   It must’ve been winter, otherwise, why wouldn’t I have been outdoors??   But I think my foot slipped off the pedal and I know for sure my knee hit the handlebar.   It hurt.   I remember crying. But I am guessing that it hurt my pride more than it hurt my knee.   I think I was already past the age where kids were “supposed” to ride a bike. ...
7 comments
Read more