As For Me...

I'm just totally weirded out about getting old.

No, scratch that, I'm just totally weirded out about being 72.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Almost all my contemporaries are in denial. They are over 70, but they're acting like they're in their forties, if not their thirties, as if they've got a lot of runway ahead of them, and we don't.

Classic rock stars are dropping like flies. Rick Davies. I'm a huge Supertramp fan, I saw the last tour, sans Rodger Hodgson. It's sad, then again Davies was 81. Not a bad run. My father died at 70. The Big C got him. That's what people don't realize, you can just be wandering through life and BAM!, cancer gets you. You'll say you're eating right, as if that really matters, but Neil deGrasse Tyson points out the fallacy in that argument here:

https://www.tiktok.com/@hasanminhaj/video/7532113904072215821

In caveman days, half of the people died by age 30. In 1840, it was 35. They were all eating organic, eating free range meats, but it wasn't until science came along that life expectancies increased by so much.

That's what Tyson says, many people will disagree, on both the left and the right, as if beliefs can undercut science, they can't.

So where was I...

Oh yeah, getting old.

I ask my contemporaries if they died tomorrow would they feel ripped-off. Most say no, that there are things they want to do, but if they passed they'd be satisfied with their lives. Not me! There's so much more I want to accomplish. But that requires I stay healthy and alive. And you can be alive and be hampered.

Anyway...

Can I tell you I saw a video of the Who on TikTok? Of Roger Daltrey, who's gone on record he can barely hear or see, waiting to hit the high note in "Won't Get Fooled Again"? With Pete Townshend standing nearby, waiting for the synth part to end to begin playing his guitar once again?

I was struck by one thing and one thing only, how old they both were. Both in their eighties. It's a pact between the acts and their fans, we're supposed to suspend disbelief and think everybody is young and chipper and still as good and will live forever.

But we won't.

Or maybe you caught the video of Paul McCartney at the Oasis show. Maybe you notice he's shrunk a bit. That's a feature of aging, it happens to all of us. But the truth is Paul's voice is shot. Or nearly shot, depending upon where you want to draw the line. You heard him on the SNL anniversary show...

BUT YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT PAUL MCCARTNEY!

That's not the point. Can you stand back and see what is going on? We're all fading into the woodwork, and no one has all their faculties, skills and looks.

But you can try and cheat. Did you read that "New York" magazine article about facelifts?

"The Forever-35 Face - The face-lift is better than ever and everybody wants one. Deep inside the uncanny world of the surgically ageless."

https://apple.news/Ao2CAADOBTaOArhJxEUIdKA

Ozempic and plastic surgery. You can present an image to the world. But it's just an image, your insides don't know any better. Never mind lying about your age.

Now this is coming across with the wrong attitude. I don't care if you love seeing the dinosaurs or get plastic surgery, all I'm saying is time is marching on and you can't stop it. So what do you want to do with the rest of your life?

You're certainly not going to be remembered. You realize that as you get older. As far as possessions? I was always creeped out how the aged ended up in one room in retirement homes, sans all their crap. I completely understand it now, most of that stuff you never use. And if you're trying to impress people with what you've got...you don't know that that's a young person's game, no one cares.

So what do you do with your time?

You can travel. But that's weird too. Because you can no longer go everywhere. You've got to pick and choose. And take a good look around when you're there, because chances are you'll never be back.

I wanted to ski at every area in America. That ain't gonna happen. Nor every mountain in Europe.

But what's important to me, what are my priorities?

And then there's books and movies and TV shows... I know people watch stuff multiple times, but I don't get it, there's still so much I haven't seen!

And then there's politics... There could be massive change before I die, we had a Black president and legal marijuana, which were unfathomable in the twentieth century, but chances are it will just be push and pull and...

You start to realize, I've started to realize, that people just can't get along. Hell, Rodney King is dead. There are going to be wars. As for people like Putin...I don't understand it. Who wakes up and says they want to be a rich dictator in a corrupt system. I mean money and power are nice, but why this desire to lord it over people?

These are questions I think about all the time.

Kind of like when I talk about music business stuff, if money was made the discussion ends there. You can't criticize, can't even analyze something if money is being made.

So you become further and further isolated.

And the separation between people, people you know, who all started from the same line. Some made something of themselves, others didn't. Fine. But then there are those who didn't who have contempt for those who did. So what do you do, hide your achievements or hang with those who've had similar successes?

It's the nature of life. You start to become more and more detached.

When you turn 60, you've seen the trick, you know the game, you're no longer beholden to the hype. If a movie or product is good, you'll find out about it when it's in the marketplace, you're not going to get all excited and waste time in anticipation.

70? That's when you realize you're not going to be here forever.

But almost everybody I bring this up with gives me a blank stare. Tells me what they're doing, as if they'll be able to do it forevermore. But they won't.

Yes, your buddies will die. And then what... You'll just keep on keepin' on.

So what do you do with your time?

I certainly don't want to waste it. I don't want to spend time with people selling me, which so many want to. Let's talk on the phone so I can convince you to help me make money!

Or those who don't want to talk about the deeper issues.

Or those who can never challenge their preconceptions.

Like that David Brooks piece in the "Times" last week, "Why I Am Not a Liberal." http://bit.ly/3Ke7Rtq I'm all for a social safety net. But is Brooks right, that some programs just don't lift people and ultimately it's culture that creates change? I'm not sure, but I've been thinking about it, even though his piece is contrary to liberal orthodoxy.

Orthodoxy...

Kamala was a good candidate. Trans kids should be able to play in all sports. Sabrina Carpenter is a talent for the ages. Question precepts and you're a pariah.

So what do I do with my time?

That's another piece.


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