Author: deftone20@bellsouth.net

Nostalgia can take many forms and can manifest itself on many different levels. Sometimes we experience nostalgia singularly. Sometimes we experience it on a group level. Sometimes it can be a fond memory of someone we once knew, events we lived through or places we visited. By definition, it is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically a period or place with happy personal associations. But, that is too simple. It’s more complex and can be something different to each of us. It can also be deceiving. We tend to block out the monotonous events involved in our nostalgic thinking. We forget the results and repercussions of some of the events. We turn a blind eye to the negative. If you really stop and process your history, it’s quite fascinating.

Rather than get into some deep philosophical ramblings, which would be easy on this topic, I think I’ll convey my point through a personal trip through some of my more vivid memories. It’s not meant to rain on the parade of nostalgia because anyone familiar with this blog understands that I look favorably on the past. We all think “our time” was the greatest. Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials. They all have upsides and downsides but you typically find more upsides with your generation than outsiders do. I was born in 1977 so I am Gen X. I grew up in the 80’s/early 90’s, which according to multiple TV shows on VH1 Classic, was the greatest time to be alive. Granted, there were some major positives from the time but I imagine the Baby Boomers think the same about their time. I think we can all agree that millennials are pretty weak when they try to compare their generation to ours. 

To simply list cultural references of the 80’s and 90’s would be too easy. It’s more about what the cultural references meant to us individually. While I was watching Transformers, another person may have been watching Jem. My He-Man was another man’s G-I Joe. But regardless, we are generally very protective of our childhood. This was most recently brought to the surface with the release of the Ghostbusters remake. There were people my age that simply refused to go see it because it could not possibly be as good as the original. No Bill Murray, No Dan Akroyd, No Sigourney Weaver? Worthless. Yet, a 19 year old can watch our Ghostbusters from the 80’s and think it’s the dumbest thing ever written. To wit, I say bologna!

 Which brings us to the first topic: 

• In general, are the remakes really worse than the originals? My answer has to be yes. I’ll take the original Halloween, Friday the 13th, RoboCop, Transformers, Ghostbusters and Texas Chainsaw Massacre any day. First and foremost, a remake just seems lazy. Sure, there are new special effects and the story can advance sometimes but your over arching script has already been written. Did the Dukes of Hazzard really need a redux? I believe that some of the most groundbreaking films came from the late 70’s through the end of the 80’s. Think about some of the prominent films from that time; Star Wars, ET, Aliens, Indiana Jones, Terminator, Caddyshack, Vacation. Those are some really good movies. Some of them hold up and some of them don’t but they were original films in their day and have been the basis for multiple spinoffs and copycats. Everything today seems like a spin off of one of the great 80’s movies. There are some great filmmakers today but a lot of them are also from the 80’s and are using some of those films as references. Think Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, John Singleton and Spike Jonze.

• Was 80’s music really good or just memorable? This one is tougher. Music has been around a lot longer than movies so each decade has had its own unique sound. I will submit that 70’s Disco was the worst until 2010’s Country/Pop/Rap came along. My personal favorite was 90’s alternative rock. This view is not shared by Alicia. I love Smashing Pumpkins, Sublime, Everclear, The Cranberries, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains…..really all of it. I can still listen to Lithium on XM and enjoy the music and sing along. So, I think 90’s alternative music was really good and is more than nostalgia. However, the music from the 80’s, while toe-tapping and classic in one sense, was not really that good. Unless of course you are talking Hair Metal or Rock.  Don’t get me wrong, I really love 80’s music but I can understand when someone says that 80’s music stinks. The synthesizers, the electric drums, the weird dancing, all bad. When it comes on, I will sing my heart out to Safety Dance but think about it – this was a group of guys with planter pots on their heads wearing matching outfits doing a very poor rendition of the robot. “I come from a land down under? Vegamite sandwich?” Not the best from a talent perspective. There are some absolute icons that were playing music in the 80’s but they continued to refine their sound and survived the 80’s. Again, I am a fan but a lot of it is bad. I think we all enjoy it because it takes us back to those days. Der Kommisar is an abysmal song but when I hear it, I think about the Pelham Skating Rink so it has very positive feelings associated with it. It is also when music videos were popular so we all saw something cool visually with it. So, in this case, the nostalgia places the true opinion of the music somewhere between perception and reality.  

 • How about some TV? This one sort of goes back to the movie section for my generation. Originality drives a lot of the popularity of these shows. Because once again, and just being brutally honest, the product is not good anymore. I have watched Full House and Saved By The Bell very recently and the jokes are just simple and poor. But America almost flipped her lid when Full House was announced as coming back less than a year ago. Today’s desire to watch the comeback was based purely on our nostalgic view. Back then, we just didn’t know any better. Everybody wanted to be Zack Morris and wanted to date Kelly Kapowski, or vice versa. In today’s world, Screech would be the popular hipster and Zack would be the mean pretty boy. One of the key issues with TV then and TV now is/was our expectations. When “Saved by the Bell” or “90210” or “A Different World” came on, they were dealing with hard hitting issues like drugs and alcohol and teen pregnancy. For the time, those were taboo issues. Now look at this comparison. In one episode of SBTB, Jessie struggled with speed pills because she wanted to stay awake and study and meet all of the demands of being a top student. That was a deep, dramatic episode. You should remember, “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it” followed by the second worst fake cry in acting history (only second to her attempts in Showgirls). Now, one of the most popular shows of the last few years is about a science teacher who finds out he has cancer so he decides to start manufacturing meth and slowly becomes a drug lord that murders people that get in his way, young and old. All in order to raise money for his family when he’s gone. Can you imagine an episode of Full House where Danny Tanner decides to start slangin cane? I actually may have just come up with the perfect reunion show for Growing Pains. You get the point, the line has gone further and further. That’s what makes sitting down and watching Luke Perry bellyache about being good looking weak. But the 80’s and early 90’s had a feel that can’t really be found today, unless you try really hard. One of the best television shows of 2016 is Stranger Things, which is modeled after 80’s Stephen King and Steven Spielberg. But you know why it’s soooo good? It feels like an 80’s show AND has all of the grown up horror of today’s films. The perfect combination!

 This is going to get way bigger than I thought so I am going to go with some quick hitters now.

 • Baseball – We have now discovered that our baseball players from Gen X were all juicers but weren’t they more fun to watch? I loved the McGwire/Sosa home run chase. Jose Canseco was always entertaining. Roger Clemens was a fireballer. Doc Gooden and Daryl Strawberry were almost super human but turns out they were on amphetamines, at least according to Lenny Dykstra. Now, we may have stricter guidelines and they may be more kid friendly but it’s not as fun to watch. I enjoy looking at 80’s baseball cards, not because they are valuable, because they aren’t, but because it takes me back to when it was more fun to watch. I don’t necessarily condone cheating but if the percentage using was what they claim, was anybody really at a competitive advantage. Of course, a lot of this is tongue and cheek but the point remains it was more fun to watch!

• Football – Again, it was a blast to watch because of some of the things that have changed since then that have cleaned up the game. No more celebrating after touchdowns, no more crushing hits without a penalty, a big reduction in trash talk. From a strictly entertainment perspective, it has become way more technical than “back in the day”. Now, you get beat with film study and statistical overload. Then, you got pushed around a football field and you ran someone over or you got ran over. Now, we can’t even agree on what a catch is. I still love football but it has become way too over officiated. Again, to be fair, I am not a big showboat fan but I did like when the players had some freedom to express themselves. If you didn’t like it, you were allowed not to like it. Now, that is all behind us.  But I can’t honestly say that the times were better.  The game has just changed and I miss some of the old stuff.

• Basketball – This one is a hand’s down for me. I remain a huge NBA fan but you will never prove to me that the players from my generation aren’t better than they are now. The current players may be able to jump higher or may be stronger but there aren’t many people that play defense like Scottie Pippen, pass like Gary Payton or Magic, rebound like Barkley, defend the paint like Ewing and Olajuwan, talk trash like Reggie Miller or John Starks, destroy defenders like MJ or AI, or shoot with such cold blood as Larry Bird. There are some great players today that can do those things well but I’ll take my guys all day. There is nothing you can say so don’t try. Just move along.

• Toys – I’ll try to close with this one. The toys of Gen X were awesome when we were young but they really hold just nostalgic value now as opposed to being something that can be replayed today. Transformers were cutting edge, GI Joe was supped up Army Men and Atari was our first shot at video games. You can’t bring those out today and expect to be mesmerized. Pong and Frogger would be quite annoying today. But would I like to play it? Hell Yeah! Super Mario and Duck Hunt brought us hours and hours of joy. Super Tecmo Bowl has received it’s own blog here. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out is a cult classic. BUT, you can only play those games for so long today and the nostalgia begins to wear off. I bought a box of 1989 Donruss for $10 a couple of weeks ago. It started out as the greatest thing ever because I took myself back to opening cards in my bedroom at my mom and dads house and remembered all of the players. About halfway through the box, I started wishing they inserted autographs and jersey cards. It lost it’s luster, until I pulled a Ken Griffey Jr. That card, currently valued at about $10 if in good condition, was the highlight, and the fun was over.

 That’s nostalgia sometimes. It can be a great idea in your head and seem really fun to begin with. But, then you start to compare it to how far technology or collectibles or our standard of living has advanced and it wears off. If I could figure out a way to bottle up that initial nostalgic feeling when I see an old movie or ride by the old Video Superstore or pull that Gary Sheffield Rated Rookie, I would be a millionaire. But that’s a part of it I guess. Nostalgia is almost a high for some people, me included. We can spend a lot of time chasing it and once we find it, it doesn’t last long enough and we are looking for it again. It’s really kind of cruel in that way. Your mind takes what were fun but rather normal experiences and gives them new life as you get older. You want to go back and get those experiences and relive them but it’s never as good as the first time around. Then, there is disappointment. But, the high is worth the low on this one. If Doc Brown would go ahead and invent that Delorian, I would have some dates picked out to go back to and experience things “the first time” again. Until then, I have my memories.

 J-Dub

“He awoke to the sound of a boom and a shaking that he had never felt before. As he turned to flip the lamp on, he realized the power was out. He was sitting in total darkness. But usually, with darkness, it was quiet. Not this time. He heard faint car alarms, destruction and worst of all, shrieking and screaming. He found himself somewhere between still being half asleep, terrified and curious. Stepping out of the bedroom, there was another boom, but this time, more of a cracking sound and further in the distance. Still, the shaking was felt, even if the sound was further away. He stumbled to the front door and slowly opened it, not knowing what to really expect.
Stepping outside, the prevailing feeling became terrified as the city he was standing in was littered with fires, wrecked vehicles and people running through the streets trying to escape something that had horrified them. In that moment, several thoughts began running through his head. “What is everyone running from?”, “Should I just start running with them?”, “Is this war, anarchy, zombies?”, “Do I go back inside and just lock the door?” The thought that kept repeating between all of these other jumbled thoughts made the most sense. “What the hell is going on here??”  

Strangely, amid the internal questioning and taking in the surroundings, there was a moment of clarity, a moment of calm. Almost trance like, he began walking in the direction the people were coming from. He didn’t know where this decision had come from or what he was even doing walking in that direction. His body was just making the movements, with no regard to the trepidation in his head. Pure chaos passed him on the streets as he walked towards the center of town. As he approached a flashing red stop light at an intersection, apparently running on some emergency generator, something caught his attention. There was a gas station to his left. There was a faint sound of a person, calling out.  As he made his way closer to the station, he could see the outline of a person reaching out of the partially blocked entry doors to the facility. The constant rumbling and shaking had toppled the sign from the storefront and it sat twisted across the doorway. The person was alone, hoping and reaching for someone to pull them from the collapsing backdrop. He approached the door and moved the sign just enough for the door to sling open and she jumped into his arms. She could not get the “Thank You” out fast enough before he turned to run grabbing her hand. It was time to run with the crowd now instead of heading into it.  

They ran from street to street, surveying the landscape, thinking internally and sometimes aloud, but clinging to each other. They didn’t know where they were going, what they were running from or even each other’s names. They were just going on instincts. Those instincts told them to run, to stay with each other because 2 heads were better than 1 and they needed to find somewhere safe. They reached a small opening in what appeared to be a bridge that had collapsed. There was only one little opening so they went in and it opened up enough for them to hide. They were able to pull some metal and shrapnel over the opening and they finally introduced themselves to each other. Somehow they just knew at that moment that they were meant to find each other during this event. It was just one more unexplainable moment in what had turned out to be the most unexplainable evening of their lives.

The loud crashes and chaotic sounds finally subsided. They chose to continue to wait, partly out of common sense that they needed to let the dust completely settle and partly out of fear that their minds were just tricking them into thinking everything was ok. After what felt like several days had passed, he thought the time was right to check everything out. He grabbed her hand and they emerged from the rubble together. The sun was shining bright, the fires were gone and there was silence all around. Whatever caused this had come and gone and they were standing together looking at what was left of the city they called home. They walked back down the street they frantically ran up a couple of days before. Now, just slowly walking, in silence, holding hands.  They began to notice people starting to come into view from the various hiding spots they had jumped in. There weren’t as many people as before but they were coming out to see the sun as well. As they approached the center of town, they realized that whatever was happening previously was over. They were safe again. They began to let their guard down a little. They even glanced at each other and smiled for a moment. When they did, they both knew that they had made it together. He was led into that chaos for a reason, although he didn’t know at the time. She needed someone to hold her hand so she would know that she was not alone in the crumbling world. But now, it was over and everyone was slowly making their way back to their homes and shelter. They turned and just looked at each other, not knowing whether to say goodbye to each other or use this chance meeting as a glimpse into humanity they hadn’t seen in a while. So, they just continued to hold hands and just stood there.”

My friends, we are in a very difficult time in our existence. The human race has been here before but this is sort of new for my generation. Have we experienced trying times? Of course we have but this feels like a new day, a new level of burdens and worries. People we thought we knew turn out to be someone altogether different. Friends we thought we had turn out to be strangers. We have become devoted to our 24 hour news cycle and adherent to our social media shares. We take it all for gospel without using our own judgments and never question validity or legitimacy. I love social media as much as the next person and Alicia would probably tell you that I love it too much. But in today’s world, it hurts us as much, if not more, than it helps us. It feeds hatred and spurs commentary without fear of retribution.  
The story above is representative of the society that we are in right now and I use it to bring up a few thoughts for your consideration. I don’t know how to answer or address all of the thoughts yet but I think we are being forced to think about it. We may not have all the answers or fully understand why we are where we are today. We may not even know where we are, or at least we haven’t accepted it yet. I can tell you where I think we are. We are standing on our doorstep, looking at a burning city, a burning state, a burning country. There are people running in all directions, using their own misguided assumptions or what their friends tell them or what the internet tells them to determine the type of person they are going to be or, in some cases, they feel like they have to be, to survive.  

Sometimes, we can’t listen to all of the thoughts in our head about what’s happening around us. Our minds are not always our friends. What we need to be able to do is listen to what our heart is telling us. We need to be able to turn into the direction the fearful are running from and find someone who needs help. If we are the ones that need help, we need to reach out and let someone do just that when they have offered. Whichever person we are, we also need to be mindful of each other. We need to recognize the calling of the hurt or the scared. We need to recognize those that hold our hands when we are the ones calling out. We can not do this alone. We must help each other; most definitely if we are friends, but even if we are strangers.

We have to believe in each other. We have to believe in ourselves. We have to believe that we can repair our society. We have to believe that we have some control and we have some say in how our lives turn out. Will it be easy? Absolutely not. Will it ever be perfect like in the movies? I think the honest response is that we have advanced too far to answer that affirmatively. I do know there are good people out there though. We can not allow ourselves to be represented by the few. We have to stand for what we believe in and hold the hand of that person next to us that is looking for something to believe in. We can be a light to someone, even if it is just one other person. Really, that’s all it would take if we all did it. If you can’t be a light, find someone who is and cling to them. We don’t have to save the world but we can start by saving each other.  

This is not just for the people that are struggling with worldly/societal issues either. This could be for the person that doesn’t know how they are going to afford their next grocery cart full of goodies. Someone who has been abandoned by people they love. Someone who has lost a loved one. Someone who is ill and has struggled with coping. Look next to you in the checkout line or at the red light or at the dinner table. We are all hurting right now through some cause. We have to help each other. We are all we have! A movie star isn’t going to save us. Nor is our government. Our snapchat friends and twitter followers are not going to be our light. We have to look within and to the people that are physically in our lives. There is a lot of fear in our eyes right now. We don’t know what is going on around us but we know we need to run for shelter. While we are running, we need to pick up those that need to be there with us.

My final point relates to the final paragraph of the passage. When we reach out to someone and they accept our helping hand, or vice versa, we can’t tell them goodbye and retreat to our lives when the coast is clear. This is covered ever so gracefully in a song by Thrice, “Stay With Me.” I am asking you all to reach out during a time of need. Now is a time for friendship and caring. But I want you to answer the questions posed in the song – “Would you stay with me, if you thought the war was over and everything made right? Would you still believe in us? Would your love for me grow colder with no one left to fight?” Really think about it.  

Think about someone who has been there for you when you thought your world could not get any worse. When things got better, how easy was it for you to go back to your old ways and forget the ones that reached out their hand? This can be said about personal relationships, religion, really anything. I’m guilty so I am not trying to be hypocritical either. When we struggle, we reach out to friends, pastors, family and God. They don’t only need to hear from us during those times. I can think of a handful of people I have met in very difficult circumstances. I didn’t know why or how I met them and didn’t really question it at the time. I do know that those people will forever have a place in my heart and they mean a lot to me. They will never be forgotten. It’s time for us to become unforgettable. It’s time for us to do things the right way, regardless of what our society says we should do. Friends, we are now in a very difficult set of circumstances and we need to make room in our hearts for those that are hurting and those that need it the most.

J-Dub

It’s a saying as old as time that we have all been told at some point in our lives if we have lived any reasonable amount of years – Age is just a number. I’m here to tell you that we have been lied to. Age is in fact many things, both tangible and not, some good some bad, but clearly more than just a numerical identifier of our existence. But before I go on a ramble of what those things include, I want to get some general understandings out of the way. To begin with, I am aware that I am not the oldest person on this planet. I am not even the oldest person that will be reading this blog. There are others that have had tougher lives, have more physical issues and are generally hanging on by thinner threads than myself. The point of this is not to complain about getting old or seeking sympathy. However, this is my first time “getting old” and I don’t have any prior experience. I am figuring this out every day and while there are several obvious downsides to aging, I want to point out (and also remind myself) that there are some less known positives that need to be discussed. So let’s talk about what age really is.
Wisdom – We all have different experiences in life. Those experiences help us form our opinions of the world and our fellow man. Some of us go through physical issues or loss while others go through emotional or mental difficulties. While unique to each of us, they provide lessons that are crucial to our continued survival. These experiences teach us who to trust, how to deal with adversity, how to protect ourselves, how to protect the ones we love, how to love, when to let love walk away, when we need to reach out to friends and when we need to try and figure out things on our own. Wisdom is more than just being knowledgeable. Wisdom is using our knowledge (more detail below) to make more sound decisions than when we were 18 years old.

Knowledge – This characteristic could be good or bad. Like wisdom, our path through life forms the amount of knowledge we have. The way we were raised, the people we surround ourselves with, the amount of news we take in and our presence on social media help us stay in touch with what is going on around us. The world is constantly changing and as we age, we are better able to sort the junk from the real information. You may be asking how knowledge can be bad. Consider this – Alicia has decided that there are just some things that she’d rather not watch or know about. She doesn’t watch the news like I do. She sees things and hears about them from me or friends but she does not sit down and watch the news programs. I, on the other hand, will turn on one of the 24 hour news channels when I lay down for bed and watch until I fall asleep. While she is sometimes in the dark on what polling numbers are, she also doesn’t let contracting flesh eating bacteria consume her thoughts when she spends a day on the creek. She isn’t concerned about Zika virus when she’s working in the yard. So you see, sometimes too much knowledge can be a bad thing.  

Awareness – The older you get, the more you can say, “I’ve seen it all”, with conviction. Of course, the more you see, the more you are able to see. Think back to the Allegory of the Cave, discussed last week. When you first step out of the dark and see the sunlight, the harder it is to keep your eyes open and look around. You have to become accustomed to the light. As your eyes adjust, the more you can open them wide and take in the view. As you age, you become more aware of when people are lying to you or when they need help and are afraid to ask. If used appropriately, awareness, and to a greater degree, self-awareness can be powerful traits to possess. I think that the older I get, the easier it is to tell when I am pushing too hard or when I am overstepping my bounds. I hope to continue to hone that skill and become ultimately self aware.

Empathy – Some people may be born with empathetic traits but most are developed during life. Some people never even develop them. I have found that aging has increased my ability to be able to understand and feel for people when they go through tough times. By no means does this mean the person with empathy totally gets it and can relate to the person going through those times. But as we get older, we realize how precious life is and how important each year, month, week or even day becomes. We don’t want to see people we love spend those days in turmoil or misery. By extension, we feel a certain level of pain for that person and want to help or take away that pain. We can only imagine that if we feel it, even if on a small level, the person experiencing the issue must feel like they are in figurative hell. When we hear about a friend being diagnosed with cancer or a couple losing a child or someone going through a divorce, we have the appropriate experiences in life to put that event in a perspective that makes it real enough for us to understand the gravity. This can be a tough one when it becomes a part of our make up but I would rather have empathy than be someone who can’t feel it.

Apathy and Intolerance – These go together because I have reached a point where I care so little about certain things, I can’t tolerate the thought and effort it takes to be upset about it. This is not the intolerance you may immediately think of. Getting older hasn’t made me dislike other religions or races or sexual preferences. The intolerance I am referring to is that of mundane activities or bullshite. When we live in this world long enough, we tend to become sick of the latest public outrage or “false flags” of our twisted society. We stop caring about some things, for better or worse. I don’t really care that much about waiting in a long line to do something that lasts 2 minutes, i.e. roller coasters. Do I still love them? Yes, but if the line is too long, I’m good without it. I don’t dwell on the fact that I am not a homerun hitter in softball. I don’t need that to prove my manhood. And I especially don’t need steroids or illegal equipment to keep up the charade. I don’t have to see movies in the theater. I don’t have to have the newest automobile accessory or sound system. I guess it’s not so much “not caring” as it is caring more about important things. A lot of times, I just don’t care…..  

Strength – This is not about brute physical strength. This is about being a strong person with moral fiber and a belief system we don’t compromise to satisfy others. This is about being able to support one another when needed, to be a shoulder to cry on – holding our children when they are tired even though our body is weak too – staying awake on a long car ride when everyone else in the car is asleep – pushing through a work day when we’d much rather be in bed – putting that fun thing back on the shelf because we know a bill is due soon. That is strength and that comes with age, maturity and development. That is one of the great things about getting older but also is not something we tout to a 20 year old as a perk. I am proud that I can do those things but I am not running to Bri or Aaron or Zibby and saying, “Just wait until you have bills to pay and you have to stop buying “toys” or that long night where you can’t lie down and rest yourself because your kid needs to be held until they go to sleep. It is a blast.” While I am not touting it, it is a clear sign of adulthood and a big indicator that you are growing up.  

Fatigue – When there is strength, there will inevitably be fatigue. Carrying the weight of a family, bills, friendships and a perennial fantasy football dynasty means we are going to crash from time to time. The good thing about getting older is that we can accept it more. Fatigue was a sign of weakness at 21. If we couldn’t stay up and party all night, we were lame. I submit to you that it is a sign of strength when you reach your 40th birthday. The fatigue comes from doing things that the body and mind have a more difficult time doing than they did 20 years earlier but you still do them. It comes from pushing yourself to your limits mentally and physically. All of the things above create that fatigue. Being empathetic toward others, remaining aware, using wisdom and knowledge, caring for those around you – all of this can cause wear and tear. If you’ve tried to do things the right way, you can wear the scars as a badge of honor. The fact is I am tired. I will get more tired I am sure but when I am comparing myself to a 30 year old Dub, I am beat.  

Respect – With age, comes respect. I’m talking about respect for other people, your world, work and talents. In our mid 20’s, we thought we were the next big thing. We thought we had it all figured out and had the world by the balls. We didn’t know a damn thing. We were just too prideful or ignorant to accept that we didn’t know a damn thing. Now, I respect that friend that is fighting through a divorce or the single mom or dad that is raising their kids alone or that guy from high school who was headed for death or jail that turned it around and is a productive, honest human being. I respect what my parents had to put up with when I was growing up. I respect my teachers for not killing me when I was the class clown. I respect my friends and family for trying to do the right thing and teaching me the same. I respect Andrew Luck, Stephen Curry and Mike Trout for their athletic talent. I respect Chino and Dustin Kensrue for their ability to turn words into art. I thought I was good enough to do what they are doing when I was 22. Yes, that would be the definition of an ignoramus.  

Nostalgia – I guess this is probably the best part of getting older. Every generation experiences it. There was no better time to grow up than when “I” did. For my generation, there will never be another Nintendo or Saved By The Bell or Friday the 13th or Mike Tyson or Michael Jordan. When you age, you long for those things that bring pleasant thoughts and memories to your fuzzy mind. I can’t remember much about school or work but I remember the first time I saw Halloween and I remember the night Christian Laettner hit “the shot” against Kentucky and I remember Sid sliding into home. I remember fishing tournaments with my dad and RA basketball games and spending the summer fishing in Papa’s pond and going to the flea market on Sundays with Granddaddy and Gaga telling us to “put the damn presents down”. I hope I’ll always remember those things. If not, the blog will have to serve as my memory because those were all great things.

So yeah, that age thing. It’s not just a number. As a matter of fact, it gets harder and harder to remember the number every year. Forty will be an easy one but I am guilty of having to back into the number by subtractive the year I was born from the current year, I can’t lie. Well, I can but I am not right now. Getting older is not all bad. Old is relative anyway. I used to think 40 was decrepit but here I am, knocking on the door. Now, I think 60 is old and 20 was a thousand years ago. I think I am doing better at 40 than I anticipated when I was 20 but I can’t say I spent too much time thinking about it. I think about age a lot now. It’s hard not to. I see friends with kids getting married or graduating. I see kids from when I was a teenager having kids. There are no longer any Tecmo Bowl players in the NFL. Michael Jackson, Muhammed Ali, Ultimate Warrior are all deceased. I am getting older and there is no way around it. I am trying to learn to live with it and accept that it is a part of the grand cycle. In the end, it is worth noting that I am thankful to be here. Hopefully, I’ll feel the same at 60, should I make it.

 J-Dub