Aging

I am old, and I am getting older by the minute. It is not a pleasant experience, and I can only imagine that it will continue to get worse. Things hurt longer, the cold seems colder, I piss more often, and I like to take naps. These are the things that come with age. Not any of them are any good. Perhaps I am a bit wiser, but only by the fact that I now realize what a complete fuck up I was when I was younger. There is a "if I knew then what I knew know" feeling about getting old, and I expect that will get worse as well. In ten years, providing I live that long, I am sure I will look back on this time of my life and say "damn I should have done XYZ then." Another thing about aging is that it would appear I have "outgrown" some of my heroes. There were two fairly decent prospects for today's hero. One a lovely fellow by the name of J.E.B. Stuart, a dashing Confederate cavalry commander, who performed some heroic feats (and made a blunder or two) in the war of Northern Aggression. There was a time in my undergraduate days when I read, and was quite interested in that particular war, and if I had been thinking of heroes back then M. Stuart would have been an easy choice. However, I have lost interest in that phase of American history, and therefore the me of today can not choose M. Stuart. Perhaps, one day in the future, I will renew my interest in the era, and "JEB" will ride again as a hero, but not for today. The other fellow is a scheming bastard by the name of Aaron Burr. I must confess to having, at an early stage in my education, an admiration for M. Burr, but that was quickly dispelled when I got to read a little more about him, and his life's ambitions. He was quickly replaced in the hero pantheon by his rival, and the man he shot down like a dog in a duel, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton has already taken his place on the hero list of this blog, and Burr has been consigned to my own personal "dustbin of history." Outgrown, and no longer admired. I now sort of wish that, if such a place exists. that Burr burns in hell. So, it would seem that along with all the gray hair, ear hair, and all the other joys of getting older, heroes are dropping like flies as well. That being the case, and since I could not find any suitable replacements, it is with regret that I have to inform you that for today, February 6th, there is no hero of the day.