It's All Down Hill From Here...

As we close in on my birthday, which everyone except my mother can seem to remember (but that is another post!), the question of how old I will be keeps coming up. My answer seems to illicit one of two responses.

From those people whom are older than me, pity.

From those people whom are younger than me, fear.

I can honestly say that I have neither fear nor pity of the pending anniversary of my birth. I have never placed much importance on birthdays. Maybe it is because, having a birthday so close to Christmas, there was never much emphasis placed on my day. People simply had better things to do!! Maybe it is because I have never quite understood the social hierarchy of age ranges. And I wonder where Kyllian gets his Asperger’s tendencies! Maybe it is because I just don’t care.

Someone said to me the other day, “Ohhh, it is all down hill from here!!” Supportive huh??? I am sure they were trying to be funny but it started me thinking on age. Why is that people feel they are ‘over the hill’ or ‘past their prime’ once they reach a certain age? People seem to have a bell curve view of age. You get better with age until a certain point. Then you peak and it continues to suck more and more from there on out and then you die.

People’s apprehension regarding age seems, to me, to stem from their fear of how close to death they are getting. At some point people realize that they now have fewer years left to live then what they have already lived, hence the ‘down hill’ analogy.

Here’s my theory... We are all going to die at some point. None of us know when that will be. We peak when we are born and we have been coasting down hill ever since. We can spend that downward coast desperately trying to hit the brakes to slow our decent or we can throw our hands up, feel the wind on our face and enjoy the roller coaster that is the journey to the bottom of the hill.

So, no, I do not have fear, sadness, apprehension or any of the other feelings I am ‘supposed’ to have about my birthday. Instead…

I am happy that I have been able to spend another year on the roller coaster.

I am hopeful that during that year I was able to do some good and affect someone’s life in a positive way.

I am inspired by what I can accomplish if I am blessed with another year.

And I am accepting of the fact that I have no idea when the hill ends.

After all coasting down the hill is WAYY more fun than climbing it!!