By Cindy Phillips
There’s an analogy among Boomers that describes how quickly we feel life flitting by. It is said that at our age, life is like a roll of toilet paper: he closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
My favorite local radio station plays soft hits from the 70s through the 90s. I love this station because it surprises me every day with songs I had forgotten. On November 1, it started playing Christmas music. I don’t mean they sneak a Christmas song in every hour or so. I am talking about all day, all week, 24 hours of holiday tunes.
Why do we need to start listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween? What is the big rush to start celebrating Christmas while practically skipping right over Thanksgiving? That poor holiday gets no respect at all any more. Ask a young person their thoughts on Thanksgiving and they ask, “Is that the day before Black Friday?”
I enjoy Christmas carols like anyone else. But let’s start playing them about two weeks before the big day. These days, by the time Santa arrives we can’t stand the thought of hearing “Feliz Navidad” one more time. I am an old hippy at heart, but even I can only stand to hear Don Henley sing “Please Come Home for Christmas” just so many times. And although the Beatles will always reign as this Boomer’s favorite musicians of all time, once I have heard John Lennon sing “Happy Christmas” about a hundred times in a two-week period, I’m kind of done.
We seem to be in a rush about everything and have become a society craving instant gratification. What possesses people to stand in a line all night outside an electronics store to be one of the first to have the newest version of the iPhone? There is no prize that is awarded for having Samsung’s S5 instead of the S4 before anyone else. What is the burning motivation to have that hot little device in your hands before your neighbor does?
I upgrade my phone every two years because that’s when Verizon gives me the discount. At the end of that two years, I still am trying to figure out how to navigate my current model. I kept my LG EnV for three years because I was scared of having a phone that was smarter than me.
Kids are rushing to grow up. Young girls are dyeing their hair, wearing makeup and dressing like 20-year-olds before they even hit the tween years. Of course some of these same girls may grow up to be women who still dress like 20-year-olds even after they have crossed the bridge into AARP status. It’s not funny then either.
I take my life in my hands each morning on the drive to work. I am dumbfounded by the idiot who comes up behind me doing 100 mph. We both know that when the Interstate dumps into downtown, the speed limit drops to 35. And we both also know we are going to get stopped at that same red light in front of the Law Enforcement Center.
You’re not going to arrive to work any earlier than I am, so why aggravate us both? I guess that’s why they call it rush hour. Personally, I am in no rush to get to work in the morning. I enjoy a leisurely ride enjoying the sunrise, appreciating nature and waiting to hear Mariah Carey sing “All I Want for Christmas is You” just one more time.
Cindy Philips is a columnist for The Mountain Times
