Turning 60

I never expected I would see the milestone I’m crossing today. It always seemed like it was over the hill, older than dirt and a carry-over from ancient days. Something I never thought of as applying to me.

You may have guessed already — it’s a birthday. A big one in the eyes of some. I’m turning 60.
But, I don’t feel like 60, and when I look in the mirror, I don’t see 60.

I’m pretty active. I would still play tennis if I had someone to play with. I walk regularly and plan to join a workout gym this year. None of that “sounds” like 60 to me.

I’ve done the math, though. I was born in 1948 and graduated high school in 1966. Yep, I’m 60 alright.

I realize now, what seemed to be soooooo old to me before is not old at all. Am I still middle aged? or am I old? As far as feeling 60, I only have my misguided perceptions of what that would be like, and now I know that was wrong. I’m realizing that feeling my age is a totally subjective thing. This is not how I thought 60 would feel.

I remember my grandmother who came for extended visits in our home while I was growing up. With deep wrinkles in her face and what seemed like an out-dated look at life, she looked more natural in a rocking chair with a quilting needle or crochet hook in her hands, producing yet another work of art, than she would have on a tennis court.

Yep, this age thing is a little difficult to figure out, but that won’t stop me. When I get my answers, I’ll share them with you. In the meantime, you’ll find me in the news room at the Herald Democrat, proud to have lived every one of my 60 years.

I hear from unknown sources that 60 is the new 40. I like that because I think I feel 40 more than I feel 60.

Little feet are following

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a mother-daughter calendar — one of those flip-style stand-up versions. It’s called “365 treasured moments for Mothers & Daughters.”
And who was my gift from? My sweet daughter, of course.

When I flipped the page for Jan. 6, I read a quote from Hans Christian Andersen: “Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.” I love this quote. My first thought was to share it with my friends.

I think we get busy into our day-to-day lives, which seem to be more challenging every day. We get focused on making enough money to pay our bills and save enough to live on after the age of 65. Some of us might refer to it as the rat race and others, like my husband, call it the war zone. He also refers to Dallas traffic in the same way.

We seem to get so busy, we forget about the young eyes watching us. Whether we are parents or grandparents, we have youngsters trying to keep up with, emulate or learn from us and this is what we overlook.

Our children are learning how to parent from the way we parent. They are learning how to treat their wives and husbands from what they see in us.

I know there are times, while raising my children (now grown), when I didn’t set aside enough time to spend with them while they were young. Even so, I sometimes recognize myself in some of their actions and, oddly enough, I see some of my parents as well.

I guess that’s just the way families work. We don’t need to over-think this — just be ourselves while remembering our children and grandchildren are watching and trying to keep up. I think Andersen was on the right track in suggesting we make our way easy to follow — easy enough for youngsters to grasp.

Stepping up to hi def

High definition technology has recently come to the Godwin household in the form of a new television. Since we got this great, new technology, we also decided to get a satellite so our reception will be better and we can realize the best features of our new TV. That, in itself, has been a pretty daunting task.

When we moved from Plano more than 15 years ago, we made a decision to stick with the channels we could get through our antenna. We had cable in Plano and found that, most the time, out of more than 100 channels, there was nothing we wanted to watch.

Well, after watching reality TV and courtroom TV and programs where people get up and scream at one another trying to figure out the parentage of their children, we decided it was time to make a change again.

We’re in the midst of figuring out what button does what on the satellite receiver, the remote to the TV as well as the remote to the DVD player.

We haven’t invested in the movie channels. We enjoy renting DVD movies and high definition on those movies is pretty spectacular.

One thing I noticed while watching “Breach” — you can see just about every detail down to the pores of the actors’ skin. Now, if you take into consideration that actors wear stage makeup to look good for the cameras, you may understand that it’s probably not necessary if the movie will be shown in high definition. That is the case with “Breach.”

I thought the actors turned in glowing performances. Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe were astounding in two of the lead roles. Cooper was the bad guy and Phillippe the cute, young FBI agent who did the work to catch Cooper.

My only complaint: there’s just something that makes a character less true, less mean or less macho when you can see his lipstick.