As the calandar flips and we all get another year older it got me to thinking about age.

What is age, really? "You are as young as you feel" is often said to those of us over 30. As if it's supposed to make us feel better as we approach the dreaded 4-oh.

"Aging is a process that can not be stopped". Well no kidding! ;-)

It's interesting that men and women "age" differently, at least how I see it. In that regard I'm very happy to be a man. 

We grow a belly and and a handful of gray hairs and become "distinguished. Women do the same and get traded in on a model half her age. 

At ONLY 39, this goatee has GOT to go. Way too much gray, making me look much older than I actually am. I know, sounds vain but it's not. I'm the farthest thing from vain you'll ever see. I generally don't care what anyone thinks about me one way or the other. But the gray hairs are a reminder that I'm not the spring chicken I once was, hence they have to go, for my sake.

Getting older sucks. And not for the gray hair reasons, either. Your body simply can't do what it once did. Where once I ran a 4.4 40, now I look at the distance and say "no thanks". Where once I could walk two rounds of golf carrying my clubs I now say "Cart please". 

The downfall starts at 30. It really does. Man or woman, doesn't matter. How active you are, doesn't matter. That's the magic number. Like clockwork the metabolism slows down. Where once you could eat anything you wanted to and never gain a pound, now you LOOK at a meal and gain 5 pounds.

Now, that's not to say life completely sucks as I approach 40. Far from it. Life is great, it's just different than it was. Youth is soooo wasted on the young. If only I could do what I could do then, while knowing what I know now. At one point not long ago I though I had recaputed some of that, but, alas, it wasn't to be...

Anyhow, I digress.

At 16 we think we know everything.

At 20 we try to prove it.

At 25 we realise we DON'T know everything

At 30 we finally grow up, sorta. And depressingly.

At 35 we start to realise we are getting old

At 39 we realise what mortality is... 

I'll tell ya what happens at 40 when and if I get there.