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Monday, September 22, 2008

50 Is the New 50. Period.

By Gene Grant
For the Journal
          The Big Five Oh. Me. Today. Unbelievable.    
    And perhaps you soon — or just passed — as well. It's starting to feel that way. Just like when you buy a car and start to notice others like it, so have I met a number of people lately who have greeted a half-century this year. The latest being a wonderful woman I met at the Laundromat across from UNM last week, also 50. We were just about giddy over it.
        All that to say that this day, while a significant one personally, has a lot more meaning.
        This is a pretty damned good day and age to be 50. I have to think it's the best time ever. In fact, I'm convinced of it. When was there ever a time when you could take the sum total of your life experience, the exhilarating triumphs, harrowing mistakes, missed opportunities and shockingly successful second chances, and do something significant with it?
        Think about that. There was a time not that long ago that when you hit a certain age it was akin to being a professional athlete. The magic was over. You were playing out the string set up in your 30s. Not so now. I know so many people who have virtually reshaped their lives from top to bottom after 50 and are living in profound joy and accomplishment because of it.
        For those of us in the rattler end of the boomer generation tail, life has been a tad frustrating. Sometimes a shade too young for some of the more significant cultural shifts in the past 40 years, or just a tad too old to revel in the newer ones.
        For example, for me the tumult of the '60s was witnessed from the kid's table, but the '70s were a no rock left unturned decade. The '80s were a high-water mark for some, but I look back on the era with a wince. Money was made and it was a heck of a party, but the resulting rehab stints, HIV/AIDS, and a shattering divorce rate for those of us who hitched younger was sobering.
        The '90s? The jury is still out on that one for me. I recall attending a number of second (and third) marriages, new careers and a general sense of unease for us watching the Internet generation get on their muscle.
        Something happened, however, at 40. For me that was '98, and I liked it, but I knew a lot of us who did not. There was something about 40 that was unsettling. For even the most prolific Peter Pans among us, the lifestyle started to get stupid after that milestone.
        But there's something fascinating about 50. It's liberating. And by the way, 50 is not the new 30. I absolutely cannot stand that phrase. Fifty is the new 50. Period.
        It's rather incredible when you consider the sweep of cultural change we were privileged to witness. That really hit me last night watching Carol King do a devastatingly beautiful turn of "So Far Away" on KNME. Some things stand the test of time. In a way, I guess we have, too.
        So what's ahead for us? Lord knows. What I do know is this. As we assume elder status from the Greatest Generation, we're gonna still be rocking. The finger wag from them will be replaced with our kids' eyes rolling skyward.
        We've been there and done that, and the T-shirt is now a rag. Along the way, we've been upright and responsible, but we've also been embarrassingly sordid. The result being we are also wise. Let's see how we put that wisdom to use.
        Gene Grant is a writer, actor, former congressional staffer and father of two. He can be reached by e-mail at gene@genegrant.com.