Manifesto 45, Or, Rolling with Punches

The development and life-cycle literature suggest that there are varying definitions of the onset of what is considered "middle age."  The experts generally observe that middle age begins somewhere between 35 and 45 years of age (with some sources marking the blessed event starting at a wizened/ripened 65).  Forty-five, for most purposes, is widely accepted as the onset of middle age.

Here's some knowledge I copied and pasted for context:

Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age.

Middle-aged adults often show visible signs of aging such as loss of skin elasticity and graying of the hair. Physical fitness usually wanes, 10-20 lb accumulation of body fat, reduction in aerobic performance and a decrease in maximal heart rate. Strength and flexibility also decrease throughout middle age. However, people age at different rates and there can be significant differences between individuals of the same age.

Both male and female fertility declines with advancing age. Advanced maternal age increases the risk of a child being born with some disorders such as Down syndrome. Advanced paternal age sharply increases the risk of miscarriage and many birth defects, including Down syndrome, schizophrenia, autism, decreased intellectual capacity, and bipolar disorder. Most women go through menopause, which ends natural fertility, in their late 40s or 50s.

In developed countries, yearly mortality begins to increase more noticeably from age 40 onwards, mainly due to age-related health problems such as heart disease and cancer. However, the majority of middle-age people in industrialized nations can expect to live into old age.

I stand before you and declare that I am now entering my middle age. How do you turggats like me now?

Photo by Beasley Korsakov

 I really like my salt & pepper hair. My barber guessed my age as 35 and told me that I was one of the "lucky ones" as he nodded toward a balding man ten years my junior.  While I'm not the fittest I've ever been, I'm definitely no fatty. I like that a lot.  I have few wrinkles but I can see that the skin's going southward. I am developing pretty shitty eyesight and my ear hair is my newest OCD focus area. I'm sure my hearing has taken a beating after all these years but I'm pretty sound in the audio department. I still get producer gigs. Aches and pains take longer to heal but I can hold my own.

But blah-blah-blah with any sort of aging woes. That is not where this goes. That shit is for the soft of spirit and the weak of constitution. I'm not genetically or socially predisposed to that. This is grown-up territory. Pay attention, people!

Sure, 45 is here but I think that it is a very bad ass thing. I'm actually kind of proud of how this has turned out. I feel that I have earned a little experiential credibility by this juncture so I'm going to utilize that to its fullest. I've never seen aging as something to fear or fight. Aging is just a way to challenge how we reposition ourselves. Stick and move, stick and move, and protect your armor's chinks.

I am finally beginning to both understanding myself better and actually be comfortable in that space. It's taken a long time for that seedling to sprout. Here's what I realize today:

I am even more demanding of myself and others (if that's even possible). I'm certain this can drive many people crazy. But I also know that my closest friends are equally demanding of themselves and me. We just roll with these punches. It is, in part, what keeps us going. Probably explains why I have so few close friends.

I have become a very difficult audience. I crave entertainment and stimulation. But while I've lost the patience to criticize the poor or failed efforts of others (and I only teach for pay), I do enjoy doling out well-deserved praise. I do not think at this point in my life there is anyone who would say that I'm just "being nice" with a compliment. But I am as insatiable as I am bored.

I have opinions and I am way too easily suckered into giving them. I really have to work on time that waste of time bullshit.

I now predict things pretty damn well. I've long stated that I can see through knots. Now think I can sometimes predict how that knot will be tied before it's ever tied. I have some confidence.

I do understand that I am but another cliché. I've been called out for certain things by friend and foe. Many of those things I am well aware of since I invented them. I don't fight these allegations because I'm pretty certain that we are all stereotypes of something or another. Some of us are just better at dealing with this fact than others. Since people are pretty easy to categorize and classify, it becomes so totally refreshing, then, to sometimes just be completely wrong about a person or thing. It rules to have a negative or even a neutral read completely obliterated.

So, whatever.  I've said more than I planned here...like some old geezer telling every and anyone in the barber shop who's going to win a fight.

To sum, I am the new old head in town so bring your A-game because I'm just not that impressed by shit anymore. And do not for a moment believe I will tolerate any JV-style whining. I might just pat you on your head and send you back to bed.