Welcome to 49.2!

THIS IS WHAT 49.2 LOOKS LIKE!

Age once was a vexing thing.

When you are young, you can't wait to be older. With age comes a drivers license, the right to vote and beers without sneaking into the woods.

That is followed by, in quick succession, career responsibilities, marriage, mortgages and, ironically, old age.

Your entire life is made up of age rules. You have to be of a certain age to watch a movie, rent a car and create a criminal disturbance without gaining the requisite criminal record. It doesn't end there. Want to collect on what's left of your 401k, qualify for Medicare or retire? You gotta be of age.

Worse, you only get one shot at key ages: The 16th year is pretty major, yet you have the same 365 days to master it as you have with 11 or 37. And 21 is pretty important but you are expected to treat it the same as 22. And what about 1? All you have to do that year is learn to walk and talk. And you have exactly the same amount of time to learn all of that as 19 when, really, all you have to learn at 19 is the difference a beer bong and a bong (hint: one one requires a lighter).

Phooey. I have a new solution.

I am done playing by the man's age rules. I've played it his way for the first 49 years and I've decided it doesn't work for me any more. Heck, I've enjoyed being 49, but the man expects me to stop being 49 Thursday. Why? Because some calendar mass-produced in China featuring cats or ducks says so?

Really? Really? Have the Chinese calendar makers won?

Here's what I am doing instead: 49.2.

It's modeled after production rollouts for technology advances. I am simply augmenting my age with an indicator that I've decided again to upgrade 49 with another go-round. Anyone can do this: if you are, say, 38 and you are comfortable with it but would like the opportunity to continue on and maybe even improve on 38, augment 38.1 with a 38.2. Maybe it goes to 38.3.

The key is, your happiness and your comfort level with the age you currently inhabit.

The old fogies out there – the conformists – will insist that I cannot do this. They'll use negative language (words like "fifty") to make the case that simply because they have bought in to the whole age-thing, that I must conform, too.

That's the old way of thinking. I'm still young. I'm 49.2.

More later,


Mark