Better With Age

Country Legend Willie Nelson once said, ~The older I get the better I feel about things. There's a lot to be picked up on if you keep an open mind, an open spirit. There's wisdom out there. I've learned patience. And I've learned to get out of the way and not to try to make things happen but just let then happen and accept them.~ Without a doubt, getting older is something each one of us is facing and as much as we don't like it we have to accept it much to our chagrin because quite frankly that's life. Essentially, life is about experiencing, as well as accepting changes in every sense of the word when it pertains to our seemingly ongoing battle against Father Time. You see, no matter how hard we try to stop it from happening it will gradually sneak up on us revealing itself in certain ways.

Let me ask you this question to all the guys out there, when it comes to the aftermath of chowing down, are you experiencing repercussions/problems now that you didn't experience back in the day when you were younger? I think it would be safe to say that all guys including myself are dealing with the uncomfortable torture, so to speak, of heartburn and/or acid reflux. Its a sad situation indeed for any guy to no longer be able to devour with reckless abandon chicken wings, a whole pizza, bbq, or whatever the case may be as we now reach for the pepto, rolaids, pepcid ac, tums or down a glass of water to help conquer the pain and not have it be the other way around. Let me tell you something I've learned, drinking a glass of milk helps subside heartburn when you're unable to get a good night sleep.

If you think about it, you accept you're getting older when the conversations you have with your friends begin to gradually change. What do I mean? Well, when you're young the conversations oftentimes are about the late night/early morning adventures one has with his/her best buds/gal pals out on the town partying up all-the-while getting absolutely tipsy. However, as time passes on the conversations go from trying to remember what happened the previous night to talking about the television show you watched last night and asking their thoughts on particular episodes. House, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars, Glee, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Chuck, WWE RAW/Smackdown, etc. have, in a funny way, become our generation's Matlock.

For the question can be asked, how many of you 26-35 year olds are accepting the fact that you're either losing your hair or it's in the process of going gray? As a guy who works with kids for the past 12 years, they will say out loud what you don't want to know or hear for that matter pointing out the lack of hair I don't have and the gray hairs as well. In any case, there are methods in which to turn back time in order to avoid looking older than your actual age like coloring one's hair or receiving treatment for hair loss, which personally I am not going to because I'm just going to end up shaving my head anyway. Hey, in all seriousness though by accepting the fact you're either going bald/gray you inevitably accept the knowledge in which you're not old but more distinguished than these young kids today.

In retrospect, getting older stinks and yet there are distinct advantages about it that helps you grow mentally, emotionally, physically, and even spiritually as well. Ultimately, the one advantage of getting older is we can share our wisdom of what we learned over the years of what has either worked or hasn't worked with these young kids today. You see, it's our past mistakes that can be a lesson for those who we see a bit of ourselves in teaching them that there are other alternatives such as patience, spending wisely, and having faith in God to lead them to their future spouse...but I digress, In the end, when it comes to the sands of time in regards to aging we all don't want to end up, in a manner of speaking, smelling like spoiled milk, instead we want to have the sweet smell of a finely aged wine because as wine goes they simply get better with age.