Today I turned [old enough to know better, but not so old that I don’t at least consider it]. Birthdays, like New Year’s Day, tend to inspire questions from others, and those questions change depending upon your age. Since it’s obvious that I’m never going to have children, and I’m not yet old enough to retire, most of the questions I’ve gotten have been sort of stammered and awkward (“So…any plans for your birthday?” “How’s it feel to be [insert age here]?”)<\/p>\n
Mostly they’re awkward because we still dance around a woman’s age here in America (50 is the new 40, you know). There is no aging gracefully: we must all be tanned, toned, and trim, ready to compete with women half our ages in any arena there is (forgetting, of course, the truism that age and treachery will beat youth and enthusiasm every time). Though, in the spirit of the advice I gave my friend Bill, who is 366 days older than me (so nice of him to try out each age just before I get there, don’t you think?) — having a birthday is better than the alternative, and don’t think of it as another year older, think of it as another year more fabulous — I’m giving myself a little birthday gift. I’m giving myself permission.<\/p>\n
I’m giving myself permission to just be; to not think so much; to not be concerned with all the things I’m told a “good citizen” should be concerned with; to be passionate about the things I really care about; to try new things and not be perfect at them; to be sad; to be alone; to be happy; to refuse a challenge; to have my own opinions; to make mistakes; to be earnest; to be thankful and say as much.<\/p>\n
And in the spirit of that last one, thank you to everyone who has come by here, and to the folks who leave me comments. I appreciate the time you take (it is, after all, the only thing you can’t get more of), and the kind words, and the ways in which you sometimes challenge my thinking.<\/p>\n
Sit down, have some cake. There’s ice cream in the freezer if you want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I turned [old enough to know better, but not so old that I don’t at least consider it]. Birthdays, like New Year’s Day, tend to inspire questions from others, and those questions change depending upon your age. Since it’s obvious that I’m never going to have children, and I’m not yet old enough to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-thoughts","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}