Only a Matter of Time

It finally happened.

Last week, LITERALLY, I looked at my watch and couldn't see the numbers. I haven’t been able to see the date for some time but it wasn't enough to break me out of my denial.

“I do NOT have 40 year old eyes!” 

The words in the books that I've been reading have suddenly shrunk. I'm doing that yo-yo thing with papers that I need to read. Is it clearer here or there? I'm sorta like the old gal version of the "can you hear me now?" guy, only I can't see.  Recently, I was having a conversation with my hairdresser about gettin’ old and she commented,

“The eye thing is real. I woke up one morning and couldn't see to read anything and so I went to the eye doctor who examined me, leaned back and asked, 'So, when did you turn 40?”  

My hairdresser smiled and said,

“I told him, ‘My birthday was two weeks ago!”

When I was in kindergarten it was an election year and on voting day they held a fake election for our little class of 5 year olds. I didn't understand what we were doing at all so I copied the little girl  next to me who circled the name of “Ford,” on her paper. When the numbers were counted in my kindergarten class someone named, “Carter,” had won.

When I got home, my mom was sitting and, very uncharacteristically, watching the Tv, she asked me what had happened during my day.  The way I remember it, she didn’t even look up from her chair, I told her,“I voted for Ford but he didn't win.”  She said, sadly,
“Me too.”

“The Iran Crisis: An America Held Hostage.” 

I remember the yellow ribbons. I remember the newscasts on Tv . I remember the confusion in my little girl head. I remember the general great dislike for Carter as his presidency went on and I remember in high school my history teacher saying that she thought that Carter would be remembered much more positively than he was portrayed as president. Tonight, I’m watching a program on Georgia Public Broadcasting about Jimmy Carter and beginning to put the pieces together between what I remember and what history tells me as an adult. As a president he might have been shaky but, as a man:

In 2002, President Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work "to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development" through The Carter Center. Three sitting presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama, have received the prize; Carter is unique in receiving the award for his actions after leaving the presidency. He is, along with Martin Luther King, Jr., one of only two native Georgians to receive the Nobel. -Wikipedia, "Jimmy Carter"

40 - I’m starting to lose those things that defined me as “young” but I’m beginning to gain perspective. I've lived long enough to see how stuff plays out. Life isn't so much about “wait and see,” anymore as it is about “this is what I've seen” and that makes me more patient for “tomorrow.” I’ve realized that life happens in stages and that, even though there are times when I don’t understand, Time brings understanding.

And, that is a cool thing.