Mid-life Adventure

There was a mini-crisis around the office the other week when a book on mid-life crisis made the rounds of crisis-bound editors. The book is actually a how-to-cope with mid-life crisis, and includes such sage-ful advice (for men) as growing a ponytail despite a hairline in deep recession. One editor realized, after reading the book, that he must be in crisis and decided it was time for him to...get a facial.

Without batting an eyelash I will tell you that I’m into mid-life, and I don’t find it to be a time of crisis at all. In the last four years I found myself getting into the "aging" pasttimes of cooking and gardening, and lately have even forayed into flower arranging. (If my eyes weren’t so bad I’d probably be knitting or crocheting as well.) I entertain no thoughts whatsoever of rock climbing or snowboarding or parasailing; even rollerblades scare the daylights out of me. I know who Sting is but who is Lenny Kravitz? The Westlife concert I unknowingly attended sometime ago taught me a valuable lesson about decibel tolerance among different age groups.

These days, if I sleep at 2 a.m. it’s because I’m reading, not out carousing or dancing on the ledge at the disco. Telephone conversations are short and to the point; I can’t even remember the last time I made telebabad. There are more and more people who are "half my age"–or even less–who are achieving great things and reaching positions of great importance, making me realize that this age of high tech is really beyond me.

But there are lots of plus factors about reaching mid-life. Allowances are made because you’re "old na". You can get the "young people" to do things for you, and they’re generally more indulgent because of your advanced age. When people exclaim "you look so young!" or tell you the latest fashion fad is "bagay pa sa ’yo" you take it with a grain of salt and are not so easily flattered or fooled–and you don’t really mind that much anymore. However many years you may look you have hopefully lived them well, which gives you the right to be as sweet and doddering or as grouchy and eccentric as the mood strikes you. With age you really do see things in a different perspective and, more philosophical and hopefully nobler, the world and all in it are less harsh and hostile.

I think that’s what they call "mellowing with age".