wisdom | smilingbug

My Dad once told me “getting older is wonderful” (and I wrote about that in a past blog) but I’m starting to think he meant getting wiser is wonderful or getting to the point in your life where you feel on top of your game is wonderful. Jerry Seinfeld’s interview on Howard Stern was rerun recently and he had a refreshing view on aging which I agree with but it also addresses getting wiser and mature but not old in an elderly sense. I’ll paraphrase what he said here: “The war is over… (and) it’s a very nice place to be… If you’re a little lucky in life you should enjoy getting older because you’re gonna see more. When you’re young you can’t see what’s going on so well.  When you’re older (…you say) oh I see what’s going on here.  I love that.” It reminded me of something a friend once told me which was roughly: In your 30’s you’re “am I doing this right?” In your 40’s you’re “I have arrived” and in your 50’s you’re “F–k you.” (a little graphic but you get the point) I believe these concepts are what could be wonderful about getting older. Diane von Furstenberg said in a June 2013 interview with Talk magazine, “Yesterday for lunch I met the most incredible 90-year-old woman…I just thought, Oh, my god, I still have time ahead of me.” -smilingbug

Diane von Furstenberg. Photo by Robyn Twomey.

A person I once worked for has an autistic son. I am not too familiar with autism but I believe her son is considered severely autistic. Thanks to technology he is able to communicate on a letter board. It’s amazing to see because during the years that I was around him he did not communicate much. When prompted to answer a question he only made an audible noise some of the time. Those noises he uttered were words to his family and caretaker because they knew what he was trying to say. Now this amazing teenage boy who has dealt with years of challenges– challenges in daily life like just being a part of a school or participating in sports– is writing out his thoughts. Thoughts that we never would have known he even had without a letter board. A blog that he wrote actually inspired me to start my own wordpress and the specific post that moved me was one that said “The best thing about this world is the people in it. Remember to always treat each other with love and respect. We live for such a short time, let’s really have an impact while we are here.” Incredibly inspiring to think that these type of wise and profound thoughts are going on in a brain belonging to a person who until recently had limited communication. What an astounding world we live in. One filled with ecstatic joy, unimaginable sadness and everything in between. -smilingbug