Thursday, February 10, 2011

An Irate Looks At Forty

Not quite a week ago I turned 40 and for the past several days I've been trying to figure out if it means anything. The only real conclusion I've come to is that if I haven't figured it out by the end of the year, I'm letting it slide. I've learned this much in 40 years - You can't know everything, you can't control most things, and you shouldn't have to finish anything that's wasting your time. Also: Platitudes come easier with age, but they still smell like bullshit.

Hell, I'm not sure I'm even a grownup yet, or what that means. Just look at my birthday gifts: A trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (a shared present with my son and my wife), a Wave caster-board (a two wheeled device that's ridiculously fun but mostly ridden by eight to twelve year-olds), and a copy of the Mahabharata (abridged at almost 900 pages). I can't make sense of any of these things in combination and I suspect I shouldn't try. Better just to let it slide and go surfing instead.

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2 comments:

  1. Levi MontgomeryFebruary 10, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    Forty's nothing, boy. You couldn't even vote yet when I turned forty. Well, barely. :)

    I keep looking at that title and trying to decide if it's an error or if you're calling yourself an irate. Not like an irate surfer, or an irate caster-boarder, just an irate.

    I may adopt that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don DoggettFebruary 12, 2011 at 11:58 AM

    Yes, it's irate as a noun. We say IIIRRE! instead of AAARRRRRR!

    ReplyDelete

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