Reflections on turning 55.

The lyrics to “I Can’t Drive 55” are running through my head.  Today, I turn 55 years old, and I feel pretty good about driving 55.

I feel pretty darn good for my age—as if I should feel otherwise.  I hope that I will surprise some who might learn of my age today.  Certainly, I hope that no one would guess me to be older.  Truth be told, I don’t know what 55 should feel like.  Tell me to “act your age”, and I wouldn’t know how to act.  After all, I have never been 55 before!

Age is but a number.  It is the passing of calendar years.  The days, weeks, and months do seem to pass more quickly the older I get, but otherwise.  I don’t feel all that different from year to year.

The question I have every April 30^th is “am I better today than I was last April 30^th?”  I hope I am.

Spiritually.  My faith has changed over the years.  I prefer to think of it as having grown.  The Universe has grown around me, and I see myself as less and less central to my Universe.  I struggle to live “I am third”, but the struggle is, itself, evidence that I am growing Spiritually.  Perhaps in the next 55 years I will finally get it right.

Physically.  I have aches and pains, but they are the same aches and pains I have had for decades.  (Maybe, if I would stretch more….)  Over all, I feel I am progressing (albeit at a slower rate than in my youth) rather than declining with age.  I am no Jack LaLanne, by any means, but I maintain a reasonable level of fitness.  Despite my love of food and beer, I am not obese or over-fat.  I don’t quite squat ATG, but I go deep, and I am going increasingly heavier.  I am not marathon-trained (nor do I wish to be), but I don’t get winded climbing the three floors to my classrooms and lab (like many of my students do).  No major health issues.  The hairs are increasingly gray (but those are the ones that have chosen to remain in my scalp).  Physically, I feel great.

Intellectually.  My ignorance continues to shrink.  Time has given me the opportunity to learn and to grow intellectually.  In my youth, I was much smarter.  Today, though, I know so much more.

Emotionally.  If I seem at all like an old man, it is emotionally.  True, I can be a crotchety, grouchy old man, but it is only because I grow increasingly frustrated with the shortcomings of men—and my own shortcomings.  Over all, though, I have learned that the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control—are to be cultivated.  I am no longer hopelessly waiting for them to be divinely bestowed upon me.

Socially.  My true friends have remained over all these years.  That is the greatest birthday present one can ever receive.  I have a phenomenal wife and two incredible children.  I don’t need to be liked by others.  I am accepted by those who matter most.

Fifty-five is another mile-marker on a great journey.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!