At the noisy end of the café, head bent over the table, an old man sits alone, a newspaper in front of him. And in the miserable banality of old age he thinks how little he enjoyed the years when he had strength, eloquence, and looks. He knows he’s aged a lot: he sees it, feels it. Yet it seems he was young just yesterday. So brief an interval, so very brief. And he thinks of Prudence, how it fooled him, how he always believed—what madness— that cheat who said: “Tomorrow. You have plenty of time.” He remembers impulses bridled, the joy he sacrificed. Every chance he lost now mocks his senseless caution. But so much thinking, so much remembering makes the old man dizzy. He falls asleep, his head resting on the café table. — C.P. Cavafy, “An Old Man” Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Getting Old
Move-In Weekend
It’s Sunday night. We moved the boy in yesterday, had dinner with him tonight, and tomorrow morning, we’re going home without him. I’ve had some emotional ups and downs this weekend as I cross the gulf between youth and old age. I almost cried five or six times. I feel great about Berkeley. It’s a college town all the way. Men, women and children are decked out in Cal gear for miles around. We live in Irvine, which also has a UC campus, but it’s not the same atmosphere at all. “That’s because no one wants to go to UC Irvine,” the boy said. I feel good that he already knows some people. His best friend from high school is his dorm roommate. We met a couple of other high school classmates, one at a pizza place and one in the parking lot of the guest house. We met friends… Read more →
Graduation Still Life
Time passes. Listen. Time passes. . . . — Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood Unlike Paul Cézanne, I didn’t spend hours setting this up. I captured it just the way it looked when I came downstairs this morning. As one chapter ends, another begins. For the kids — most of them — the next chapter is college; for the parents, old age and death. Happy Thursday, everybody! Read more →
Saving for Retirement
Woody Allen
Q. How do you feel about the aging process? A. Well, I’m against it. [laughs] I think it has nothing to recommend it. You don’t gain any wisdom as the years go by. You fall apart, is what happens. People try and put a nice varnish on it, and say, well, you mellow. You come to understand life and accept things. But you’d trade all of that for being 35 again. I’ve experienced that thing where you wake up in the middle of the night and you start to think about your own mortality and envision it, and it gives you a little shiver. That’s what happens to Anthony Hopkins at the beginning of the movie, and from then on in, he did not want to hear from his more realistic wife, “Oh, you can’t keep doing that — you’re not young anymore.” Yes, she’s right, but nobody wants to… Read more →
Twitter: 2010-08-30
RT @ChelseaVPeretti: Just saw a forgettable documentary about Alzheimer’s. # 4 Steps to Generating Your Next Breakthrough – Harvard Business Review http://goo.gl/xGRa # Read more →
I Have No Fears
Except aging, death, poverty, diminished capacity, criticism, loss of love and ill health. Read more →
The Man With Two Hats
At the doctor’s office this afternoon, there was a man about 70 years old in the waiting room wearing a Peterbilt cap and holding a similar cap in his hands. Later I asked the nurse why the guy needed two caps. “He left his cap here on his last appointment,” she said. “We gave it back to him today so now he has two.” “Oh that makes sense,” I said. “I was thinking it was maybe a symptom of whatever it is he’s being treated for.” Read more →
Happy Birthday, Deborah Harry
Here’s some information that will ruin your day if not your entire life: Deborah Harry is 65 years old today! How is that possible? Read more →
Aging Boy Bands
A Facebook friend posted some photos from the Backstreet Boys concert in L.A. last weekend. Most of the “boys” now have worse hairlines than I do. Shouldn’t bands named Boys or Kids be forced to retire when they start to go bald? Or at least change their name from, say, New Kids on the Block to Old Guys on the Porch? Read more →
Not Much to Show for Myself
My wife gives the boy a plate of donettes as he comes down for breakfast. Then she asks me, “Do you have 10 dollars you can give him?” Checking my fund supply, I find that I have a five-dollar bill and two ones. “I have seven dollars,” I say, holding up the bills. “Fifty years of life and this is what I have to show for it. Seven dollars.” The boy jumps into the conversation at this point. “There’s only five donuts here,” he says. “These definitely come in a package of six.” “Okay, I modify my statement,” I say. “Fifty years of life has given me seven dollars and a donut. Not even a large donut. A donette.” Read more →
Twitter: 2009-12-31
Time marches on!! We are all dying!!! We are coming to the end of our lives!!! Happy New Year!!! # Read more →
Tyler Enters Rehab
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler says he has entered a rehab clinic to treat an addiction to pain killers he has taken to cope with 10 years of performance injuries. — Reports: Aerosmith’s Tyler enters rehab – MSN Entertainment News I hate to say I told you so . . . well, okay, I don’t hate it . . . Read more →
My Dad’s Getting Old
My dad asks me, “You know what’s a good thing about getting old?” “A lot of people you don’t like are dead?” I suggest. “No, you can hide your own Easter eggs.” “What?” Read more →
My Advice
Learn all the tricks you can while you’re young . . . — Lightning Read more →
Disease and Injury
The Backstreet Boys have been forced to cancel their New York City promotional tour because member Brian Littrell has been diagnosed with the swine flu. The other three members — Nick Carter, Howie Dorough and AJ McLean — have seen a doctor and are not showing any symptoms. — PopEater Disease and injury seem to be the only ways to put a stop to these played-out musical acts. Evidently no one ever wakes up one morning and realizes that they’re just too old for this shit . . . Read more →
Twitter: 2009-08-17
My uncle fell down and cracked his head open. He's 80. No, he's not a member of Aerosmith. # RT @ericmusselman: Jerry West "Sometimes talent gets in the way of people being able to play well together " # Read more →
I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up!
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was airlifted to a hospital after falling from stage during a concert at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in western South Dakota. — MSN Music News Hey Steve — maybe life is trying to tell you something. Let’s listen closely and see if we can hear what it is . . . YOU’RE OLD! Stop trying to suck every last dollar out of your former glory and retire, you geriatric bastard . . . Read more →
Old School
I have to say, it has been nice to watch Griffey’s career unfold in an old-school, pre-PED way; instead of belting 57 homers at age 39, he’s barely hanging on to a job. It’s refreshing. It’s the human body doing what it’s supposed to do at that age: fail. Thanks for sucking, Ken Griffey Jr. And I mean that in a completely genuine way. I swear. — Bill Simmons Read more →
The Pretenders
Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton has been forced to pull out of part of the band’s summer tour as he recovers from surgery, according to their website. — BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Another injury plagues Aerosmith What kind of surgery? A hip replacement? Earlier this summer, the band postponed seven shows after Steve Tyler, 61, injured his leg at a gig in June. I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP! News flash, boys: You’re old. Do you have those motorized carts that old people ride around on? If not, have your attendants push you out on stage in your wheelchairs and maybe nobody gets hurt . . . Read more →