It's getting late and I'm weary of the eternal birthday question: "So what's it feel like to be [YOUR AGE]?" In my case, it's officially 66 today and no one's buying what feels to me like the right answer. In terms of physical conditions — knees that hurt, hands that occasionally ache, etc. — it's okay. It's not great but it's okay. In terms of mental spirit and attitude, I have no idea how it feels to be 66 because I'm convinced I'm 24. Since I was 24, I've always felt like I was 24.
24 was the age when I moved out of my parents' house, got my own apartment and began to feel like I had total control of my own life. My parents were as good as any kid could ever hope for…but I kind of had to eat when they wanted to eat and I kind of had to sleep when they wanted to sleep and I couldn't have a girl over. Once I had my own place, I could configure everything around me to my own needs. My second or third night in that apartment, I stayed up writing 'til dawn and went to sleep around 7 AM. Just because I could.
It was around then that I stopped thinking a whole lot about age. I'm going to work on staying that way.
I have a friend who is a comic actor in his eighties. Many of you would know his name but I'm not going to mention it. Since he hit the big eight-oh, he's become obsessed with his age. I don't think he's aware of it but all his friends have noticed how he can't utter three sentences without one of them containing some phrase like "Not bad for an old guy" or "In the years I have left…" or my least favorite, "You won't have me around much longer…" It's easy to tell what's constantly on his mind and I think it's making him older.
This morning, I was saying some of this to a friend who called to wish me H.B. and to ask how it feels to be 66. When I told him what I just told you about being 24, he said, "That could be dangerous. You don't want to forget you're 66 and go hang-gliding or para-sailing." I said, "There's nothing to fear. I didn't go hang-gliding or para-sailing when I was 24."
He said, "What did you do?" I said, "I sat around and wrote comic book scripts all day."
He said, "And what are you going to do today?" I said, "I'm going to sit around and write comic book scripts all day."
He thought about if for a second and said, "Okay…that might work for you."
Thanks for all the nice wishes today in my e-mail, on Twitter, on Facebook and I even got a couple of actual cards. Yes, they still make them. I started to answer a few, intending to at least acknowledge the gesture and say howdy but then I realized how many of them there were. Even just writing "Thanks" would take me until the wishes for next year started rolling in and I began getting calls from all the people who called today to ask me how it felt to be 66, calling to ask how it felt to be 67. But I do appreciate the thoughts.