A serious joke
Ever since my first email account – AOL on a mid 90s cutting edge Packard-Bell 386 – I have received jokes in my inbox. I’m sure you have as well. If those emails are from a trusted source, I’ll open them and if they’re funny I’ll laugh. Rarely, however, do I forward them, mainly due to a belief that we all get more than enough email.
Even more rarely, have I taken any significant amount of time to analyze – or in this case – reflect on the content of those cyberspace chuckles.
This week an old friend – whose sense of humor is closer to Borscht Belt than Def Jam – sent an email, in which was embedded the following graph (please forgive my sub-standard Photoshop skills as I tried to scratch off the nasty four letter word, since we’re all about the PG rating here at the Chronicles).
Cheesy, yet thought-provoking!
The chart suggests that the older we get, the less of a f**k we give. After my initial amusement, I began to give this notion a little more thought. As I soar through these middle ages, I do find myself giving less of a f**k about trivial things. Maybe those of you of certain age do as well?
Things that kept me awake in my 20s seem to carry much less importance in my 40s (especially since I place a good night’s sleep high on my list of life’s simple pleasures). In my 20s I cared about trying to have it all. In my 40s I care about appreciating all I have.
Don’t you just love the perspective that comes with age!!!
Maybe it’s better stated that as we get older it’s not that we give less of a f**k, it’s simply that we care a f**k lot less about things that really don’t matter (like over thinking email jokes) and perhaps more about things that really do!
The Midlife Chronicles 
Perhaps I peaked early, but I can already feel myself giving less f*ks as time goes on… With life experience comes rationality and sensibility. I remember the quote, “Don’t cry about something now when you won’t cry about it in a year’s time.” Helps to put perspective on trivial matters.
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I couldn’t agree more! Now that I’m older (much older), I see life from a different perspective. Looking back, I can see how everything always worked out (even the more serious matters) and looking forward, I have changed my priorities a bit and I’m trying to live more simply. I always love your post!
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Growing older is automatic but growing up is a choice. The older we get, the wiser we become (at least for most people). That’s what makes grown-ups different from kids.
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I think time gives us the perspective to judge things more clearly. For example, when I was sixteen and started driving, someone cutting me off was a big deal–but it had only happened a few times. Now it’s happened thousands of times, and perspective makes me realize that a) they can’t all be asses and b) I’ve probably cut people off without realizing it, too. That’s a trivial example, sure, but, like the cholesterol in my arteries, time has a way of thickening the walls…. 😉
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The older you get the wiser you are. At this point, you realize you have less and less time available on this earth; so you decide to use every minute for things that really matter.
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Makes me remember a joke by Wanda Sykes about what happens when people get old. You just keep on saying :”I don’t give a f*ck”. Its not really about us not caring or not giving a “f*ck but I guess its a all about experience and hindsight.
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