born to be wild

Here is some hard evidence that retirement is a mixed bag, depending on how you approach it.  Maybe some of you have seen this video parody, “Baby Boomers Begin Collecting Their Social Security. . .” on Facebook, since it has over two million views. Please watch it now with a different eye. 

I laughed my a _ _ off the first time I saw it, but then realized that it is not really funny. It’s a sad treatise on stress as we age.  We were “Born to be Wild.”   What happened?   How did we lose that spunk that rocked the world and turned us into “Bored, Tubby, and Mild?”

We grew up, despite distrusting anyone over 30.  I distinctly recall my traumatic 30th birthday – I was suddenly someone who could not be trusted!  Talk about a major transition and I wasn’t at all prepared for that gap, but I adapted the best I could, sliding down that slippery slope into middle age, where stress takes over.  Maintaining relationships, raising children, holding jobs, and coping with life events was almost consuming. But, the ember never dies. When the nest is empty, and the job is gone or reduced, it is time to invite the oxygen in and fan the flames.  

My mother once said, "When you are old, you can say and do whatever you want.  Speak up.  It's your last chance!"  Decide what is really important to you and act on it.  Cleaning the basement can wait.  If you get too busy to ever clean out the basement, oh well.   Someone else will eventually do it! 

Getting older is no excuse to abandon your personality. Peel away the stress.  Do things that make you really happy.  Make sure you are laughing; it's good for your health. Although relationships, having children, holding jobs,  and major life events have tamed us, we are still the same Baby Boomers.  Enjoy this blast from the past video, Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf, and forget bored, tubby, and mild.