LATE BLOOMER BOOMER
Saturday June 2, 2018
I met someone recently. My age, born abroad – upper-middle class, high-end boarding schools yet so similar in tendencies. A bit freaky. Each time I meet people with their own tortuous path story from birth-to-now, makes mine seem somewhere between ‘typical’ and trivial, much less worrying than others.
I probably had ADHD, but that wasn’t an ‘available condition’ then. Kids down our block had black and white TV. One channel. They got Mickey Mouse club. I fell in love with Annette. No devices, no internet. Privacy, communication, making friends, being aware of the world – not so much. Sesame Street and ‘sharing’ wasn’t invented yet. I grew up, but perhaps never outgrew my path …
I got through. Didn’t use drugs, counsellors/psychologists, nannies, home-libraries or futuristic learning tools. No texting, no Google, no iPhone. One phone on our kitchen wall had a six-foot tangled curly cord. No pre-school. No kindergarten. No siblings. Dysfunctional family – dad, an alcoholic. Mom, classic co-dependency but co-dependency had yet to be defined. Dad got sober at 34, when I was five. I got sober at 35.
Self-indulgence around these issues was never intentional – but maybe I’ve spent more time in that mode than I should have.
I’m moving into a new phase of life, don’t know if new things will work or if I can discard enough to make room for them.
Shifting work around, looking to better balance work/play and where, type of people, exploring new writing avenues, new social circles. Getting outside more to play. Happy, so far.
Fellow boomers, are you living your original old life – the one you were born to, or inventing your own?
