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THE WORD "OLD"

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The word "old" bothers me for some reason. It resonates in my head as meaning outdated or obsolete. An old person once told me that time flies and he must have known from experience because I was only five at the time and he was in his 30's. When you're five that's old.

At the age of fifty-four, I am learning a new perspective on life in general. My sliding scale of evaluation is changing before my own eyes. I recently became a grandfather and as unprepared as a new parent might be for the role ahead of them I ask if I too am ready for a new role in my life. This one snuck up on me. The little girl I so remember as a toddler will soon have one of her own. I laugh to myself thinking how my little girl would wake up in her crib with her hair looking like she had slept in a blender but her smile was always the first thing I would see. That little girl tricked me. Right under my nose, she grew up.

We go through a phase in our adult lives where change seems oblivious to us all. We lock our memories into a period of time that we try to define ourselves by..... but times change and so do people. My mirror lies to me often. Or maybe I fib a little to myself and hope there is a shred of truth in my own deception. "Ahhh yah don't look that much different than you use to buddy", I'll say to myself. The hair is a little greyer and there is a little less of it but for the life of me I can't figure out how that happened.

When I was a little kid grandparents were so...well...old. There's that word again. Certainly, things must have changed because I'm certainly not. Some three-letter words are worse than four letter words and old is one of them. It is time to re-define the definition of that word. My father just turned ninety and he still drives and lives alone.

At the last family reunion in July, I heard a whispered rumor that he might be looking at dating web sites. (He likes younger women....85....86...). My own grandfather became my granddad coincidently enough when he too was fifty-four. Well I choose to ignore the numbers.

As technology and times change the period of time spent before something is labeled "old" has shrunk in length. The other day I heard one of the younger members of my staff refer to a six-year-old flip phone as an antique. I almost smacked the kid. Listen...if Mick Jagger is still in a rock & roll band and if John Glenn can return to space at age sixty-seven than I am just beginning. I am "seasoned" not infirmed and the younger generation better step up their game 'cause my generation is not ready to give up, roll over or slow down. Fifty-four used to mean "over the hill" but we changed the hill.

So to my new granddaughter Evie, I love yah sweetie but you have work to do.

After you learn to walk, you need to learn how to run...and I mean fast. Because you're going to have to keep up with Granddad. I will teach you how to ride horses, rope cattle, fix a motor and fish like a champion.

Together I will teach you the lost art of building the perfect campfire and how to respect nature and all living things. And when you turn sixteen if you're a good kid I will buy you an "OLD" car.......a 2020 Chevy Camaro.

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