Embracing Middle Age

And with this post I draw the line under a brilliant weekend of birthday celebrations.

Not being morbid – quite the reverse – I came across (via TED) an article in the Guardian about deathbed regrets. The top five regrets of the dying are, apparently:

1. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
2. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I had let myself be happier.

Not that I am dying – but you never know, seriously – when the ground is going to swallow you up, when the vehicle you are travelling in is going to blow up, when a helicopter is going to fall out of the sky onto you, when a car is going to crash into your house, when you are going to fall ill and have to face illness /death…

I think that my birthday party pretty much checked off all of the potential regrets – give or take a few philosophical quibbles with them.

• In my mid-life jubilee I have not taken on much paid work – although I have worked just as hard on other things and had a lot of fun.
•  I don’t hold with “to thine own self be true” because I think it is subjective postmodernist bunk – but I don’t think the cabaret acts that I did at my party were what anyone would have necessarily expected to see… like…. Ever
•  Feelings? Yes, I have feelings, but “expressing” them as I think the regret means would come into a clash with regret number 2.
• As for staying in touch with my friends, the party was one way to get a lot of people together and it was great to have all four decades represented by fun, interesting people, their partners and children.
• Happier? I can’t think of a single thing I could do to generate more happiness. I was given roller skates!

What a riot. So, if you’re feeling down – I recommend: make a song and dance about it; make an exhibition of yourself.

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