It happened. It was bound to sooner or later. Actually, it happened right on schedule.
When I was a young lad, a teenager, I remember thinking that forty was a long way off. I did the math in my head and realized that I would be forty in the year 2004. Wow, that was an eternity away.
Welcome to eternity.
Yesterday was my 40th birthday. I took the day off from work (do I really need an excuse to do this?), hung out with my wife, got cool presents from my family, fielded a few phone calls, received some warm greetings from friends at church as well as on my web site, and stuffed my face with cake and ice cream.
So what does forty feel like? A lot like 39, 33 and 25, actually. I don\’t feel forty. I don\’t look firty. And I most definitely don\’t ACT forty. So I asked my wife, \”where is this proverbial \”hill\” that I have supposedly crossed over?\”
She said, \”Look behind you\”.
Rubbish. Everyone knows the hill peaks at fifty. That is, until you are approaching fifty.
My In-laws are some of the sweetest people you\’ll ever meet. They have truly accepted me in spite of myself, whatever age I claim to be. Like clockwork, I received a birthday card in the mail from them. Beyond the pre-printed greeting, my father-in-law wrote \”May God bless you in your middle age\”.
Alrighty then. On to forty-one in pursuit of the middle of whatever and the ever-moving hill.