Being 60

Now that you've reached the big 60..... 

1. You are no longer in the dreaded 50’s, where you have been expected to be mature – adult – reasonable – boring.

2. If you knock off the 0, you are now at the grand age of 6 and are getting ready to enter Grade One.  This time you get to choose the school, the teacher and all the subjects.

3. At the same time, you have entered the age of the ‘Wise Women’.  Who defines that?  Hmm…. Do you know any?

4. A 6 has no sharp pointy squared off things like 5 or 4, 7 or 1.  These will be mixed in over the next decade, but always preceded by the softness of the six.  

5. The very roundness of 60 is similar to those body parts with affectionate pet names like love handles, and bat wings – well some maybe not so affectionate. 

6. You have now officially passed from the realm of so-called adulthood with your inner child intact and ready to play.

7. Although your new 6 year old may just be getting ready for school, you’ve already done all that and can do whatever you want to!  

8. If you look very closely, it looks like a 6 is just one line doing one thing – making a 6.  But….where that line ends, completing the six, it just connects to the spine of the 6 and you can just go ‘round the circle again and again – until you’re dizzy and you fall off – if you want to.

9. If you straighten the little spine of the 6, give it a more solid backbone, you can be a ‘b’ for beautiful, bold, brave and brilliant.  If you turn it facing the other way you become a‘d’ for decadent, delightful, and daring. If dancing is your thing, add a flag or two on top and you can have any musical note you want.

10. You can now say, with great pride, that because of the shape of    that dear little 6, you have no choice but to become loopier than you were in your 50’s and before.

11. And finally, you have 10 years in front of you before you have to straighten out and be all sharp and pointy again.  (Hopefully, by then you’ll have realized that a 7 is not a cane but a hockey stick turned upside down.)

So aging really can be turned on it's head if you really study your numbers!

“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”

~ Betty Friedan