Skip to main content

Upon Turning 30

Yesterday it happened. Sometime after watching "The Queen" (a very good movie which requires some stamina to appreciate late at night), the clock struck twelve. After that point, I was no longer in my 20's.

To be clear, I have never been one to get caught up in the pomp and circumstance of certain artificial milestones. One thing that I have learned through the last few years is that one reaches certain internal milestones without rhyme or reason; one person's moment to become an adult is another person's moment to grab strongly for long-lost youth. Still, these dates that mark the passage of time are as good as any in a post-modern world to re-assess one's stock and make some sense of the moments.

For me, a life worth living has led ultimately to a townhouse life outside of DC with a fiancee'; it all works except for the picket fence and the struggling koi in the small backyard pond. Somehow, I ended up here after stints in Ohio, California, and Switzerland; somehow, the path carries its own logic. And after wild swings that could inevitably have led to Italy or London or even back to the old hometown, I have ended up here outside of DC and outside of the plans I might have concocted when I was 25.

I guess we are always undergoing a healthy dose of change, and that change seems to happen at a greater rate than our parents and ancestors had previously experienced. We are at the mercy of an age that sometimes exists in a realm unseen (online) and moments unlived (automation). We do many things because they are possible but maybe not advisable, and we try to fit in so much before we pass from this world that a day's passing is little occasion for reflection and personal connection. Our children's interaction will become fully digital, I fear, and the act of writing will become as archaic as the manual typewriter has already become to peers not far behind me in age. Even more, the increasing living expectancy is extending development ages for people, such that the 20's are becoming the teens of yesteryear and the child-rearing days push further and further into the 30's - not to mention that mid-life crisis is becoming more a thing of the 60's than the 40's and the teens are becoming a good time prepare extensively for a life of automated tests and assessments for a variety of skills.

So there you go - our lives seem to start today just about the time that our ancestors' lives ended. Turning 30 today signifies that you must, inevitably now, take up the mantle of adulthood and start to become more mature. No doubt that the mantle in future generations will likely be picked up at 40, but that is for another day. For now, my mantle has already been picked up and will be carried forward with some vigor. Upon turning 30, I am ready to try my hand at housekeeping and married life and career life to find out all that my parents long ago learned. And who knows - kids soon to follow, another promotion, a new car? A fight with the neighbors over the hedge? A church membership? Another charitable donation? Community service? Working out at the YMCA? On my 30th birthday, I strangely feel contented with this progression, onward and upward to the building of a fuller life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everyday Love Poem to my Wife

Over a year of marriage carries Happiness, love, and sometimes cranberries But eventually the pace slows down, Work intrudes, some days a frown And suddenly the world has changed. What we must do is simply rearrange The days so that other things fit neatly In their own places, and move on sweetly To the beauties of the everyday together. Because there is love everywhere, wherever You shall be - and perhaps also Rosie - This is a good thing naturally, So good to state it thus and remember That only frigid mornings in November Can keep us apart, but only so long As the work day lasts because so strong Is our pact that I worry not a wink - Your loveliness is worth so much, I think.
2 comments
Read more

Sitting in a NYC Taxicab

I was whirring up Park Avenue for a meeting at the Waldorf Astoria (oh, how posh!) when I pulled out my cameraphone to snap a picture uniquely indicative of New York City. Something representative without being overdone (easier said that done!). Something relatable to almost anyone that has been to this wonderful city. Something easy to recognize. Something difficult to forget. Sitting in a NYC taxicab, it was apparent where the shutter would point itself. Of all the places that I have been in Manhattan through the years, none have been so welcoming and iconic as the backseat of those yellow beacons of light after a bender of a night. An United Nations of drivers mans these vehicles, representative of the dream that the United States has often been for the fortunate, displaced, and ambitious - not that disillusionment did not follow when finding the cab as an occupation hopeful for a better future. Regardless, the taxicab is often friend, sometimes foe - and sometimes the instigator of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Muggles...

...is what I tweeted last night after having the privilege of attending a private screening of the movie hours before the midnight premiere. As much as the digital revolution has fragmented the shared experiences that we have, it has also greatly expanded the impact of those events that touch various peoples. Witness Harry Potter. In the pre-digital world, this would have been an uniquely British story about wizards and boarding schools, but it has captivated global audiences and transcended the borders of its now-uber-wealthy writer. We were part of the crowd that spanned the globe to see this movie, which I can say, lives up to the hype. On a Thursday evening, we could watch the lines of children queuing up to get a chance to say goodbye to a childhood growing up with Harry Potter and watching the actor grow from a plump-faced little boy into a serious actor and apparent alcoholic. It did not matter for 2.5 hours in the theater, of a movie that was pretty gripping from beginnin...
1 comment
Read more