...several new blogs on Greenbeans concerning Growing Older. I'm taking on this challenge for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason being that several of my childhood friends are beginning to look rather... worn. I use the word "worn" because I'd like to start a movement to actually lose the word "old" as a description of a person. In my mind, "old" seems to signify that the value of that person is declining and the end is in sight, while "worn" seems more of a description of a favorite pair of tennis shoes- a bit frayed and not as crisp as they once were, but nonetheless worthy of a few more washings and a jog around the neighborhood.
And that's exactly how I feel about my "worn" friends. They still have great value to me, even in the face of their fading and fraying, sagging and graying minds and bodies. Through mutual appreciations and sometimes frictions, we have been worn in a way which makes each of us feel very comfortable, the rough edges smoothed by time. My friendships are now more about reclining and listening rather than posturing and building. My oldest friends and I built the foundations of these relationships many years ago, and everyone knows that those are the hardest years to weather. We have eroded in the some of the same ways and also frayed and frazzled in different areas that somehow compliment the other; that somehow serve to bolster and renew our longtime kinships.
Yes, my friends are in so many ways like my worn and comfortable tennis shoes. In fact, I think I'll take a few of them for a jog around the my neighborhood. But please, have the paramedics on speed dial.
7 comments:
Watch out...Rickwell is gonna be posting about Blogs vs. Post.
Looking forward to this series.
Chuck is right. I can hear Rick now, "You POST to a Blog, blah, blah, blah...". Anyway, we know what you meant. I'm just surprised not to see a photo of me included with this article. I feel like the poster boy for WORN lately. In fact, let's not use the word "worn", let's say "over-ripened" or "broken-in" or perhaps "Chuck-like". (Tee Hee Hee)
Sounds like one of those questions on the SAT: Post is to Blog as:
a) Stump is to tree
b) Bumper is to car
c) wine is to beer
d) Sentence is to paragraph
Hi Alan, I've been following and reading your blog for a while now so I suppose it's time to give you this award....I'm passing it on and congratulations! Oh and thanks too for your provocative entries :-)---
http://www.joypagemanuel.com/2011/04/in-spotlight.html
Wow. Way cool, Joy. Thanks for the comments and the recognition. Your encouragement really means a lot to me. Oh, and also thanks for not giving me a lecture on blog vs. post as my "worn" friends did above! :)
"used" - no, sounds nasty, how about "recycled" - no, sounds chemical, how about "previously owned", hmm, who used to own me? I'll go with "oiled and broken in", like your most awesome baseball glove. But Genny prefers me without the oil.
Awesome, Darin. Oiled and broken in has a nice ring to it. And Genny is wise, Darin sans oil.
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