A true story, not a fairy tale or sea story....
I was eating breakfast at the counter of a truck stop one morning when a man came in and sat down. He looked bad. Bad as in his dog had died, his son had turned homo, the city of New York caught the clap from his daughter and his wife had run off with his best buddy kind of bad.
I asked him if he was going to be okay.
He looked at me and told me his darling baby girl had woken him up with a cheerful “happy birthday daddy” phone call. He said “I’m 50 today. Where did my life go?”
I just smiled and told him to call his wife, he would feel better.
The waitress made a fuss over the birthday boy and some older fellas clapped him on the back and wished him a happy birthday.
I hope his day got better.
Good for you.
Turning 40 hit me hard. My Dad had died after I had turned 39. My good manager had left, and I had an Ivy Leaguer who was terrible.
When I turned 50, I started pulling the weeds out of my life’s garden, by tuning out and ignoring the a$$hole weeds.