Sunday, June 15, 2014

Older

Note:  This is not the most interesting post, but it is the first post I've come up with since May 27 that does not revolve around the struggles in my marriage. 

We moved to Seattle ten years ago this August.  This milestone begs me to look around.

I see my neighbors who I have known for ten years.  Our next door neighbors are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today.  Just before we moved in, they celebrated their 40th.  Another neighbor who used to organize neighborhood Halloween parties and Easter Egg Hunts for the kids has a son in college.

Last night, Jack and I attended the annual graduation party for the fellows in his department.  Many of the faculty members have been there since we arrived ten years ago.  I've thought, "I've known these people for ten years.  Everyone looks older."  I suppose they say the same about me.

The kids who were in kindergarten and preschool when we arrived are now in middle and high school.  Like the line from the song "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof,  "I don't remember getting older.  When did they?"  We have gone to open house events at the high school my daughter will attend next year.  All of the parents looks so much older than the parents in elementary school.  The scariest thing is that they are reasonably close to my age.  The other scary part is that I will have at least one kid in high school for the next seven years.  Surely I will age in that time, too.

I watch television or movies and see people who were big when I was in my twenties.  Hugh Jackman looks old.  Hugh Jackman.  He is not old.  He is my age.  (Just googled to check: He is 45-- six months old than me.)  Oy.  David Spade is performing at the Tulalip Casino.  That is where people who used to be big perform.  People past their prime.  And he is...49?

I suppose the world will soon belong to my daughter and The Boy, when people their age lead the way.


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