Yes 70 is a Number, But It's not Just Any Old Number

Yesterday was my birthday

I hung one more year on the line.

Why are those Big 0 birthdays so hard--turning 30, 40, 50 (ah they seem so easy now), 60, and even 70?

I didn't think it would be that hard to actually turn 70.  After all, I had been practicing it for months.  I thought of myself (and sometimes even represented myself) as 70 for several months before it became real.  Nonetheless, it was in many ways a tough realization.  I actually am 70 years old.

For a start, being seventy, I feel I can hardly still claim to be" middle-aged."  But I don't have a good substitute.  I am not going to refer to myself as "old," or "elderly" or even (that jaunty term), a "senior."

Also, being 70 is a milestone.  I know it's an artificial milestone; on June 15, 2018 I was only one day older than I was on June 14, 2018, when I was still in my "sixties."  I have read Stephen Jay Gould on the arbitrariness of dates and calendars.  (He was writing about Y2K and millennial thinking).  Closer to narratological home, I believe Frank Kermode when he says that the clock I hear as "tick, tock," is really just going "tick," "tick," "tick," etc.  (Until. of course  the battery wears out.)  So it is more than "just a number" (as one of my doctors tries to assure me).  

There is really nothing to say about turning 70 except that it happened.  And I won't have to worry about that particular angst again (until and if I turn 80).  

So I had the best day I could.  Luckily (in so many ways) I had Tony.

Oh, and though my birthday occurred on a wet and chilly day, I did go in swimming  the day before.  First time this summer, and it was cold, but I did it!

#Birthdays

#Turning70