There's Snow on the Roof

"Just because there's snow on the roof doesn't mean there's no fire in the furnace."

A wonderful saying to depict a youthful essence within an aging body.

You may have guessed it.  I feel old.

I'm not old, at least not by conventional, modern standards.  I'm in the "new middle age", the prime of my life.  And I'm waging a war with myself to stay phsychologically young.

The trouble is that I've been programmed to believe that this age...mine...is old age, senior, "golden."

Golden, my ass! The only thing golden about it may be a crown or two, or the frames of my glasses.
Not the pocket watch however.  I didn't spend enough time at any one job to be eligible for a gold one.

Those days are gone anyway.  What with the price of gold these days, you're lucky to get the box it came in let alone the watch itself.

I am, however, the proud owner of my grandfather's and my great-grandfather's pocket watches.

They are beautiful.  Real pieces of art now.  I love them.  I never use them but they are there, just the same, to remind me of the past, of my past.

It all seems so long ago now.  My first bike, my first movie, my first kiss.  Its all in black and white in my memory probably because all of the pictures my father took were in black and white.  Color film wasn't commercially available when I was a kid.  Neither was color television.

Neither was solid state so our first TV was enormous with a tiny, tiny screen on which we could watch any one of 4 stations.  Now I have an enormous color screen with 300 stations.  Funny how of those 300 there are really only 4 that I watch and three of those are Law and Order reruns.  The other is CNN so I can keep up on what's gone wrong in the world today.

A fellow ("fellow"...how quaint...Jeez..."quaint"...how quaint...) recently remarked to me that he wished there were a "good news" channel, as he called it.

I said it wouldn't last because good news doesn't sell.  It's not exciting enough or sexy enough.  It's not as compelling as a school massacre or a gun fight in a ski resort or a car bomb.  Now that's sexy!

I get tired when I shouldn't, hurt where I ought not to and am bored with almost every pop culture offering.

I think the latter is because there doesn't seem to be anything happening of originality in popular culture.

The music is a rehash of old stuff, the movies try too hard, fashion is slovenly and sports is so corrupted by drugs and money that it's hard to get enthusiastic.

And, if you know what's good for you, you will not get me going on politics. 

Eisenhower may not have been that smart but he was a bona fide hero.  Kennedy may not have been that smart but he also served his country with valor.  Johnson was a real deal maker and I may not have liked Richard Nixon that much but I miss his intellect and willingness to actually compromise unlike the idiots in today's Washington.

And Mickey Mantle may have been flawed but he signed autographs and was truly great without the steroids.

Marilyn Monroe was not much of an actress but she was naturally beautiful without Botox and implants and weaves and whatever else women think they have to do to be attractive to us.

The older I get the more I am reminded of another saying:

"You don't miss the water until the well runs dry."

I'm thirsty my friends.  What about you...?