A Good Enough Life

I am getting on, it is time to take some stock, to pause, reflect and map for I am embedded within an age bracket known as the early fifties, and how do I know?

Apart from the obvious, that I was born a few months after the construction of the Berlin Wall, read again, I did not say fall of the Berlin Wall! Moreover, how palpable it is, when I gaze into the mirror each morning, not to mention the many small impromptu reminders that present. Like when Twitter notifies me that I have a new follower today. Eager to see who, I touch the little white birdy on my smart phone screen and presto, the new follower is, The 50+ Feed with a profile that reads, “A steady feed of news, commentary and resources relevant to the culture, legacy, health, happiness, wisdom and well being of today's 50+ population”.  I'm drawn to the term legacy, so follow back.

Advice is good and though my life is not travelling that smooth, – I have teenage kids – I know that nobody can say theirs is perfect, not unless they lie. Still, my ever-evolving life on this mortal plane with its diminishing highs and incessant lows, the latter seemingly so low as to be of a subterraneous quality of late, has taught me a thing or two. Therefore, as I now enter the second half of my early 50’s, I have concluded that I am in the midst of a good enough life, and have compiled a small, not so insignificant inventory of lessons that smooth my path in this fluid, constructed and yet unconstructed, chaotic though organised reality.

• Have you heard the expression or idiom, “are you finished?” or, “all done?” well sorry to say, but in life it is never done, nothing is ever complete
• Life is great but some days are boring, mundane and routine
• Sometimes you have to do so much to achieve so little, kind of like, eating an artichoke 
• It is more than okay if your home is in a mess even though, the infomercial world tells us that it must always present like a showroom 
• There is nothing more pointless or common than doing the same things over and over, but expecting different results
• When people ask, “how are you?’ and you reply, “I’m good yourself?” or worse still, you reply like those Boston, New England types with the irritable “excellent you?” I can assure you, they know you really mean, life sucks  
• It is probably a good idea to tell those you care about that you love them, though sometimes it is also a good idea to refrain from such, let them sweat a tad
• Whenever restless or anxious in bed remember, sleep eventually comes though maybe not tonight
• If you occasionally think monogamy is tough it’s okay, the storm will eventually pass, but careful what you get up to in storms eye
• You are ultimately, what you do, not what you say you will do
• Any relationship is selfishly controlled by the one who cares least
• Feelings follow behaviour
• Not all who wander are lost – are your kids or a family members failing at school or withering in some endeavour? Many hippies and counterculture types that rebelled in the late 60’s eventually became successful white-collar professionals later in life
• Sometimes you hate those you love 
• You can survive without daily to do lists
• Promise yourself, that you will punch the lights out of the next person that says, ‘a new paradigm of thought’
• Sometimes you are just too damn busy to catch up with friends and if they do not understand, they were not your friends after all
• Family life is tough
• You can feel guilty for doing what is right like going to work, though equally, you can feel guilty for not going to work
• As you get older, you grow smaller, an obvious oxymoron
• If it helps, it is okay to suggest that your wife shop at Victoria’s Secret and if she does not get it, she should
• Red wine is tonic
• If you feel the others have normal lives then you do not know them well
• If you do not plan for or schedule sex, it’s probably not going to happen
• Sometimes 2-minute noodles are okay for tea, or if you are of Italian derivative, pasta e burro is fine to
• We have choices and the advertising world pounds this in us. Moreover, if for a moment, you thought that advertisers pay us little or no attention think again. Recall all those insurance, funeral plan and retirement village ads you hear on those easy listening stations
• Dark chocolate is bliss the more cocoa the better  
• How others perceive you ought not to be of concern
• Vigorous exercise is the best antidepressant, vigorous sex better still
• Growing old is not avoidable  
• You think life sucks until the doc utters the word cancer
• Health is king!
• Lists are for losers

Comments always welcomed

© 2014 Ottavio Marasco. All rights reserved.