Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts

4.26.2021

What’s in a number?

Numbers impact our lives in so many ways every day, especially us accounting types.   Where would we be without numbers, math, and the ability to calculate?  Numbers track prices, times, markets, returns, currencies, blood pressure, dates, profits, the temperature and so much more.

…then there are age numbers.  We use numbers to track the years we have spent on this earth.  For some reason, the numbers associated with our age seem to stir our emotions.  They also draw varying reactions from those around us.  We tend to make a big deal out of birthday numbers.  The type of big deal varies with age and personal preference, but birthdays seldom pass without some comments and cards, if not a full-blown celebration.  Even a bigger deal is made of certain milestones, often those numbers ending in zeros.  What is it with numbers that end in zero?  After all, they are just numbers like all the other numbers we encounter every day.  They just represent another year like the other nine in a decade.  Why do we let age numbers, especially the milestone ones bother us?  Sure, the larger ones indicate that we are getting older.  They also mean that we have more experiences, more good times, more challenges we have overcome.  We have had more tears but more smiles as well.  They mean we have more to be thankful for.  We have had more years to make us who we are.  Hopefully, that means we are wiser possibly more seasoned.  It is not that I am suggesting that we stop counting, although some might prefer that.  I just think we need to step back and think about the numbers associated with age.  They are just numbers and larger ones are not necessarily a bad thing!

4.01.2019

Don’t Let The Old Man In!


Toby Keith tells a story about a playing golf with Clint Eastwood and their conversation that led to Keith penning the lyrics for a song entitled, “Don’t Let The Old Man In”.  As the story goes, Eastwood mentioned to Keith that he would be turning 88 in a few days.  Keith asked him what he was going to do for his birthday and Eastwood replied that he was starting to film a new movie.  When asked how he keeps up his energy level Eastwood replied “I get up every morning and just keep going, and I don’t let the old man in.”  That phrase moved Keith so much that he became obsessed with writing the song.  The movie is “The Mule” and it features the song by Keith that was inspired by that conversation on the golf course.

I recently celebrated a milestone birthday, no I am not 88, and I found the song to be quite meaningful.  There are lines about loving your wife, staying close to your friends, and toasting the sundown with wine, all things I try to do.  But the most striking lyrics are…

“Ask yourself how old you'd be
If you didn't know the day you were born”

What a fascinating thought.  What if you did not know how old you really are?  How would you act?  How would you feel?  We are too focused on the numbers associated with age, especially the ones with a “0”.  Maybe we just need to wake up each day, ignore the number, keep going and don’t let the old man in.  I plan to try…


(Credit my friend, and local running legend, Jim Braden for sharing the song with me.)