5 Comments

I'm 58. People think I'm in my mid 30's .My brother is 68 and people think he's my dad. I take great pleasure in that and never stop reminding him of it.

I say "No we're actually brothers - I got the looks and the brains. He got to be born first". I still ride my bicycle everywhere. Work 8 hrs in a job with a lot of heavy lifting, come home and spend an hr working out or working in the yard. I go to concerts to see guys in their 70's - who were in their 30's forty years ago...and I thought they were old THEN. My back feels fine (Thank you, Dr. John Sarno). I drank barrels of booze and smoked acres of weed, but stopped in my mid-late 20's when I took a serious, unclouded look at my friends and their older siblings who were still doing it. I rarely see a Dr. , (but go to the dentist every 6 months) I sleep through the night never having to get up to take a leak. I eat whatever I want and weigh the same as I did in high school.

I go to church, read the Bible, and understand nothing / no one here on Earth goes on forever. I've been to a lot of friends funerals who haven't been as fortunate. I fully understand mortality,

"Well, I'm just waiting for my turn" I'll say when conversing with others while walking from the grave we all just tossed flowers into.

I'll "hit the wall" at some point (soon), but until then, I remain thankful I'm healthy enough to enjoy a life filled with physical movement, and I'll keep pretending to ACT my age, even if I still feel like I'm in my 20's.

Expand full comment

Interesting take on mob fiction. There's another theme here you haven't recognized. Further into the narrative, other characters explain it to you, like narration over Bladerunner, or a certain Congressman explaining 進撃の巨人.

The other characters aren't weak, but they are complacent, just like the old mob back east. They're old before old age, settled and waiting for death because they think "that after 35 you’re not going to change anymore. You’re the guy you’ll be until death." They know that isn't true, but that's what they each tell themselves to find comfort in the hollowness of their lives.

The "King" breaks the reverie. He is old. He won't be around much longer. But that doesn't mean he resigns himself to death. Or obscurity. Or death behind bars. He struggles, right to the bitter end, no matter the outcome.

I'm 52 Monday. My back also hurts. But my back's been hurting since 1995. It'll hurt another 25 years, at least.

Expand full comment

throw your games away. really. do it . there's still time . video games are slow motion suicide

Expand full comment

If one believes all one has is this life, what reason to do anything other than hold on tight as one can?

Doesn’t explain why people with kids fall into the same trap, though.

Expand full comment

There is a distinction to be made between someone who mimics younger people's fads (hiding his age?) vs someone who is still doing stuff that many might consider him too old for. The difference is authenticity.

So if some 70 year old still wants to run triathalons or take his hotrod to the local drag strip.... go for it.

Expand full comment