Imbolc\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Bridgit Moon<\/p>\n
Iconic birthdays.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sweet sixteen.\u00a0 18-old enough to die.\u00a0 21–when I was young, this was THE iconic birthday.\u00a0 Ok to drink.\u00a0 Woops.\u00a0 A few years later I was an alcoholic.\u00a0 Then for my generation there was 30.\u00a0 We didn’t trust anybody over 30.\u00a0 Uh-oh.\u00a0 That came and went.\u00a0 Then, 40.\u00a0 40 was a big one because it was the time you might buy a red sports car, hunt for that trophy wife and make strange vocational decisions.\u00a0 Close.\u00a0 I met Kate, my wife who has been a wonder and a major Valentine ever since we got serious.\u00a0 I made a strange vocational decision.\u00a0 Got out of the ministry and in to writing.\u00a0 Yes, there was, too, that little red sports car.\u00a0 Bought it in 1994.\u00a0 OK, I was 47, but hey.\u00a0 Still driving it.\u00a0 There was another major birthday for me, 46.\u00a0 My mother died at age 46.\u00a0 To pass your own mother’s age is a strange sensation, I imagine, at any age, but at 46, it seemed more than strange.\u00a0 Sad. Painful. Happy to be alive.<\/p>\n
After those, 50 was not a big deal.\u00a0 60 was 60.\u00a0 I mean it’s a big deal in a way, but still, the only thing I felt was that I had passed into the new late middle age.<\/p>\n
But.\u00a0 64.\u00a0 Now that’s a biggy.\u00a0 Wouldn’t have been I suppose if not for that Beatle’s song.\u00a0 It managed to set a date for a change in attitude, a time when our life and love might change, might change so much that we would ask if we were still necessary to the people we love.\u00a0 That’s too grim a statement for the light-hearted tenor of the song, but I think it did capture a fear resident in many a then 20+ years old heart at the time it came out:\u00a0 what can life be like when we’re old?<\/p>\n
Those of us in the baby boom generation had created an entire culture around youth, rebellion, drugs and rock and roll.\u00a0 Sgt. Pepper came out in June of 1967.\u00a0 The summer of love.\u00a0 Wearing flowers and heading for San Francisco.\u00a0 How could acid-dropping, hard rock lovin’, anti-war, free love folks like us ever grow old.\u00a0 When I’m 64 was like a time that would never come.<\/p>\n
Of course, no generation, at least none so far, gets to re-write the rules of aging.\u00a0 We passed through our 20s, then our 30s, then 0ur 40s and 50s and have now begun to crest upon the shore of social security and medicare.\u00a0 We have started to hit our mid-60’s.\u00a0 As iconic ages go, of course, the big one for years was 65.\u00a0 The finish line.\u00a0 Throw away the work clothes, grab the gold watch and go golfing, then fishing, then drop dead.\u00a0 Not now.<\/p>\n
We hit 64 and we’ve just begun to pick up speed.\u00a0 It’s not an age; it’s a speed limit.<\/p>\n
Suddenly we’re here, many of us, and we realize that the song was written by youngsters.\u00a0 It expressed their and our fear of moving on beyond the wonder of the sixties.\u00a0 What would it be like?\u00a0 What could it be like?<\/p>\n
I’m happy to report that it’s just fine.\u00a0 Just as I told Kate, yes I still need you and yes I’ll still feed you; she tells me the same.\u00a0 We have come a long ways from the days of the summer of love and the march on Washington.\u00a0\u00a0 Those were great days, so are these.\u00a0 I’m happy to be 64.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imbolc\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Bridgit Moon Iconic birthdays.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sweet sixteen.\u00a0 18-old enough to die.\u00a0 21–when I was young, this was THE iconic birthday.\u00a0 Ok to drink.\u00a0 Woops.\u00a0 A few years later I was an alcoholic.\u00a0 Then for my generation there was 30.\u00a0 We didn’t trust anybody over 30.\u00a0 Uh-oh.\u00a0 That came and went.\u00a0 Then, 40.\u00a0 40 was … Continue reading Will You Still Need Me? Will You Still Feed Me?<\/span>