“Fame! I’m gonna live forever!”
Some of us will recognize that line, especially if we were already adults when the associated TV series was new, or when the 1980 movie came out. Everyone has different ways of knowing or feeling over the hill.
The line also symbolizes the idea of youth, and how most young people don’t contemplate their own mortality. Most of us simply didn’t think about the idea of no longer having the appearance and capabilities we grow into during adolescence.
For some adults, it takes time to make peace with aging. We look in the mirror, and don’t see what we saw when we were 20, or 25 or even 35. It’s a spiritual awakening.
We also hear and feel different aches and pains — and not always while playing a sport or exercising. Some of us hear knocking and pinging during everyday motions, such as standing up or putting groceries away.
Getting out of bed in the morning is not a step, but a process. Some of us feel like the line from the “Fame” song about making it to heaven should be more about simply making it to the top of a flight of stairs.
Of course, age and physical shape are always relative.
When I’m standing near people my age at a YMCA — people who have stayed basically in great shape throughout their lives — it’s easy to compare and get down on myself.
When I talk to people like Mark Stiles, who continue to exercise and get stronger despite a number of physical challenges, I start to feel more hopeful. If there are people in all sorts of stations in life who are persevering and striving to stay healthy as they get older, I can, and should — with a sense of gratitude for the ability to do it.
Still, pop culture, memories and stumbling across old newspapers remind me youth is a fleeting thing, and how the natural process of time robs us of what most of us thought we’d always have.
Knowing the Spice Girls have been around for 20 years, it’s time for some more important reflections.
Some of these reflections are painful; others are inspirational. I feel like I could have done without being reminded recently that Soundgarden’s “Superunknown” album and the Seal song “Kiss From a Rose” are both more than 20 years old. Time really does fly.
Reading about the 1973 tornado that ripped the roof off of the Berg school building, I realized how far technology has come. I was living not far from Pilger, Neb., when twin twisters touched down there in June, and I can’t believe how much technology has changed in documenting, learning about and predicting weather since 1973.
One sign of getting old happened about a year and a half ago when I called the police to get the neighbors to turn the music down. While there’s certainly nothing embarrassing about utilizing proper channels to help keep the neighborhood peaceful, it sure felt at the time like I was far from the days of rebelliously cranking up the Scorpions really loud, without a care in the world.
Another sign happened recently when I was trying to talk my girlfriend into using her car to run errands, while mine was in the shop. She jokingly suggested I get down on my knees to beg for the car keys. When I went to comply, my knees cracked and popped in a way that got her to say “No, no, honey; never mind. That’s not a good idea. Don’t do that to your knees anymore.”
I’m sure in 20 years I’ll feel old in ways I can’t presently imagine and wonder why I thought I was old in 2014. That’s OK. These feelings come and go.
Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com