John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Happy Birthday to Me!

Birthday thought for the day (Or reflections on what it is like to be 51 years old.)

Get old!

Seriously. 

Not because it beats dying. Although it does. (But not by as overwhelming a margin as most people assume.)

But rather embrace the slogan “Get old” because….and this is where we get our snark on: “New and Improved” will never be better than “Old and Indifferent.” And “Young and Dynamic” is just a nice way of saying “Clueless and Unfocused.”

Just think about it, if you are young anyway.

If you are already old, you may be on medication that affects your short term memory and be unable to think through a complete thought. If that is the case, just smile knowlingly, like we do with other things we don’t understand but don’t want others to know we don’t understand. It’s very important we older folks at least keep up appearances. Trust me on this one.

In fact, if you remember nothing else from this “Thought for the day” post, please remember that part–too keep up appearances. In fact, write it down –especially if you are on medication that affects your short term memory– and leave it in a prominent place so you can see it often.

===

I am just overwhelmed with so many nice birthday wishes and kind comments and want to thank each of you for taking the time to say something to me on my birthday.

It means a lot. Thank you.

I have tried my whole life to always be nice to people. I was warned by friends, “Nice guys finish last” and “People confuse niceness for weakness.” Andd before I met my lovely wife Rebecca, I had my own table and a running tab in the proverbial “Friend Zone.”

But it all worked out –in fact, better than I could have ever hoped and despite concerns I would “nice my way” into oblivion.

So if you are like me and worry you will always finish last or be viewed as weak or simply harmless, there is some truth to that–but only a little. And it gets better as you get older and people begin to prize pleasantness over posturing.

So keep being nice anyway. Eventually a good woman will appreciate you and others people, also eventually, prefer working with nice people. And best of all are your birthdays on Facebook. For an entire day it will feel to you like “nice is the new black.” Don’t miss out by giving in to your inner-jerk. Stay nice.