What you learn in 45 years and counting....

I am coming up on a small milestone in my life. I have lived to 45 years of age and am confident in calling myself a Middle Lifer. At 45, you come to that realization, that life is about half over. I have not been carded on over 5 years, thats a determining factor I have realized. I have reached the look of salt and pepper, and as my son wrote in a short story for school, "my dad's shiny hair", which translated says, my salt is shinier than my pepper I guess.

Or is it?

Maybe its the latter youth part of life, you hope, but in reality for a lot of us, its probably on the downward half at best. One where you still dare your kid(s) to snow boarding and think you actually can beat them. But you lose, and your snotty little brats make fun of your old lame pathetic bag of bones.

I am at this age, and I guess, at this age, you have a few life lessons that you may want to pass on. Some things that have changed your life, and or mind about things, that have stuck with you for a long time. Or what at 45, seems like a long time at this point already.

I have decided to further the education of the young on this topic. By sharing a few life lessons with you, so that you may learn how to endure the agony of these, it may ease the situations that life throws at you during this time. I could give you the standard, "you get what you pay for" type advice here, but that would defeat the purpose of telling the truth.

Instead, I give to you, my lessons. - and this post took at least 10 minutes, so you know I thought real hard. I'm sure I burned at least 10 calories in the mental time this took.

"The top 10 Life Lessons of 2008"
by Middle Lifer

1. Never talk politics with your in-laws. - You will understand as you get older.
   
2. You will have imbecilic family members. - They will appear out of nowhere, and they can make you demented with them if you let them. Let them please get well soon. The rest of the family is sick of the mental and emotional drama problems. You are thankful for prescription drug companies.
3. Life is not fair. It will suck at times and you will wonder, why you? - Suck it up, it gets worse.
4. People in your family and your spouse's family will die. - Have a dark suit or dress ready and be prepared for them. Its the part of life we cannot escape.
   
5. People will get married, divorced, and be gay in your family. - That's America!
6. Life will have major obstacles and competitions. - Over the years, its like a roller coaster, the fun starts to wear off and you start getting annoyed with it at times.
7. Raising kids is a real Joy and a real Pain. - Raising another human being is pretty interesting, only for the more inclined that like surprises.
   
8. Talk as little as possible to family, about family. - Trust me on this one, the less ever said, the better.
   
9. Do not drink at family gatherings - Again, trust me on this one. Saves alot of ,"I'm so sorry" later.
10. And the top 10 thing to pass on in 2008, thats still unwritten. - Not sure what age I have to be to complete this sort of list, but I think I am shy of that one as of yet.
    

I think that aptly surmises "the must deal with problems" I have run across over these past 45 years.

But I am sure once I hit 46, I'll have all the answers, thats when the official old fart time starts.