I had a birthday in January and since then, I’ve been bemoaning the fact that I am 69 years old. Where the heck has the time gone? This just can’t be. I was out with some friends Wednesday night, and repeated my complaint to them. “I can’t believe I am 69,” I said, or something to that effect. As my friends are all older than 69, they were not full of much sympathy and couldn’t see what the big deal could be. But to me, it just seems crazy that I could be 69. Last night, I took this problem to bed with me and was tossing and turning over the dilemma of somehow now being 69, when I got out my mental calculator, a device not in much use anymore since the advent of all the mechanical and digital ones at my fingertips. I used to always be eight years older than my wife but since January, for some reason, she is nine years younger. I took this year, 2019, and subtracted the year of my birth, 1951, and came up with 68. I almost flew right out of bed at the realization that I am actually one year younger than I thought I was. But it left me wondering what other delusions I might be operating under. I have a feeling there might be a few. Since then there is a spring in my step and I think maybe the hair on my head is growing back. How many people get to simply shave a year off their lives overnight? While they were falling asleep? I think I might stop hanging around those friends of mine who are all older than 69. I belong to a younger crowd and am setting out to find them.
©2019 Jim Hagarty
