Okay so by now everyone knows the world is pretty much screwed.

The brighter among us keep our TV’s off, our laptops tuned to celebrity gossip, and our televisions glued to re-runs of “Friends.”

The rest [myself included] tune to the news which by design provokes anxiety, which enable networks to sell advertising at top dollar prices.

Anyway, I’ve been traveling around a bit and it’s a cauldron of anxiety.

Logically, the odds are in my favor, but still I allow my emotions to row the boat.

This kind of thinking is why some of the world’s greatest art was created by depressives and drug-addicts.

30 years ago [longer, actually], the problems of the world were an abstraction.

Now they’re dinner guests.

~~~

I bring all of this up because as we age we feel the pressure of life from the front end, rather than the back the it used to be when we did dumb shit like jump off of 50-foot cliffs into a tiny pools of water just for the hell of it.

The key is to balance the pressure, but as those of us in this particular chapter of life know, easier said than done.

What can I do versus what should I do?

What I do know is that feelings of vulnerability are a recipe for disaster for older men used to being on top of the world.

It dismantles us piece by painful piece – if we let it.

So I don’t let it.

I want to life life full and hearty, but with an eye on reality – my reality – our collective reality.

Remember, the only difference between youth and adulthood is ignorance.

If you can see yourself and the world around you objectively, you can use it to dissuade yourself from doing the aforementioned dumb shit so you can focus on doing fun shit that doesn’t kill you prematurely.

In the end, you have to be tough enough to accept what is so you can walk away with enough wind at your back to see life the way you did when you were immortal.