A Few Words On Aging

Today, I will start a new department in my blog. I call it CPP -- short for CommonPlace Post.

It's based on the idea of a commonplace book. A good definition for it is here.

In the past, I had collected things that would've been written in a commonplace book, but I called it a commonplace folder. In the future, I'll post them here for your enlightment and illumination, and also so I can remember them instead of putting them in a drawer.

The first is from an article in the February 2010 issue of Gentleman's Quarterly about Ted Danson, best know for playing Sam Malone in the television sitcom Cheers. He speaks about George Christopher, a magazine editor he portrays in the show Bored to Death, which is broadcast by HBO, and Arthur Frobisher, a rich man he plays on the FX show Damages.

Danson says:

The connection I make between all these characters is that I, Ted, at 62, want to be relevant. My joints hurt. I'm slower. But I remember what it was like to run and play with the boys. I want to be one of the boys. And I think these characters what that, too. George Christopher is suffering all these things -- sadness and decay -- and when you fight aganst that and don't just let gravity pull you down, I think that's fun, too. I think it's fun to see people be so offbase. The 62-year-old man who wants to hand out with the 28-year-old boy and some pot and have a colonic. 'Don't leave me out! Whatever you're doing, I want to be part of it.' I totally identify with that. And it's a little sad and a little sweet and a little funny.

As a man in his middle 50s, I agree very much because it's very true.