I don't have anything important to say today, but I feel compelled to post. That's how it is with me; there is no planning, no future posting as some of my more industrious friends may use. There is only the moment. Only the now.
So right now I'm happy to be 39 and happy that I'll be 40 soon. That sounds so frickin' old, and sometimes it feels old, like after I've been to the park, where sk8rs also hang. Or chill, or whatever they say now. Little did I know at 16 that I wouldn't give a rat's ass what the kids say when I was 39. I also had no idea that at 39 I would consider 16-year-olds the dumbest creatures on the planet, and for safety's sake should be locked in a small room until they turn 18. Having this perspective now makes me wonder what baby boomers think of my demographic.
I realized something as I was pondering my advanced age and wisdom. Most of the wisdom I have, I've gained over the past, say, five years. From the time I was born, I went through crap, more crap, still more crap, then BOOM, I'm 30-something and starting to process all that crap. Right? I think most people are that way. We're young and dumb, and then some time after our brains are physically fully developed (I've read this doesn't happen till our mid-twenties) we start to gain real wisdom.
I went to Wikipedia and looked up life expectancy through the years. They say that at the beginning of the previous century, the life expectancy was only 30-45, and in medieval Britain it was only 20-30! So I thought, "Man, if I lived a few hundred years ago, I'd be just about dead by now. I'd be ancient. The wise old lady of my village."
Have you noticed how as a society we're becoming more and more enlightened through the decades? That's why! We all live long enough to at least have a chance to gain a whole lot of wisdom.
Of course then I wondered if our brains just developed faster back in the days when 30 was old. Experience shapes the brain, right? And if a whole lotta life experience was packed in to a shorter time, maybe 30 was the equivelant to 80 now. That probably was the case to an extent, but I believe we've outpaced that. What I think is, people were running around with their undeveloped brains being queens and knights and raising babies and working the land.
That's what I think.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
I'm 31 now and only recently do I feel like I'm getting my head out of my ass.I'm pretty sure I'm smarter than I used to be, but also certain I have a lot more living to live before I can dare call myself "wiser", much less WISE.
ReplyDeleteI think back then that the body wore out before the brain did - you know, a lifetime (including childhood) of manual labor and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the middle of reading this book, 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' and it's all about gaining wisdom and getting older. It's a french book and at first I hated it because I thought it was pretentious (gee, imagine that), but now I'm sucked into it. Give it a whirl - you may enjoy it.
I'm in the process of doing the same thing - realizing that my early years were just filler experience for my time now. They say that high school is the time of your life? Fuhgeddabout it. Post-30 is when you first start actually 'living' your life.
Happy early birthday!
Hahaha! By "soon" I meant September. Sorry about that. lol
ReplyDeleteWell then let me just say, you're gonna love it. It's been a big relief to be able to see the first third of my life in a bigger context. (Yes, I'm going to live to be a hundred.) And maybe that's all wisdom really is, just being able to step back from your life and see it from afar.
ReplyDeleteDid it take you this long to realize 16 year olds were idiots? I've knew that when I was 16. Thus making myself the smrtest 16 year old ever, but still, that didn't make me smrt, just less stupid. Now, I'm smrter, but just to the point of not being a complete ass-hat. I'm like a lower-back-hat.
ReplyDeleteLOL I think most 16yo know they're dumb, but they sure as hell don't know HOW dumb, or they'd be curled up in the fetal position behind their beds.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm talking as a group. Individual 16yo can be quite smart, but the intelligence seems to come in waves. I guess it does for older folks, too, it's just our wavelength is longer.
I think keeping them locked up to 24 might not be such a bad idea sometimes! They are dumber than a box of rocks! But when I was 16, I had all the answers. I was special. ;)
ReplyDeleteFor many people, wisdom comes with age and experience. Not everyone - some people remain like, 12 for their entire life. But there are people like you who strive to be better than when they started, and you're a joy to know. :)
Well aren't you the sweetest. :)
ReplyDeleteThose immature individuals...that's why I utilized such a convoluted sentence structure--"to at least have a chance to gain a whole lot"--to cover my ass. We have the chance. What we do with it is something else altogether. hehe
Thanks for using your valuable internet time reading my blog.
Lock them up until they're 18? I think 25 would be a better idea.
ReplyDeleteIf I lived at the turn of the century, I'd be dead now. That's kind of depressing. I haven't accomplished much in life and I keep thinking I have a few more years to get it together and 'be somebody'. A hundred years ago, my time would have been up and I'd go down in history as a deadbead.
I was going to suggest 25 as the age of release, but I was trying to be humane. I see you have no such qualms. :D
ReplyDelete