My children tell me that I have mellowed in my old age.  They don't actually use the words "old age" but clearly that is the implication.  Occurences that might have raised some righteous spit and vinegar back in the day, don't seem to upset me these days.   When the waiter gets the order wrong these days, it is simply not a cause for excess stress or  change in my blood pressure.   The same choice that I have always had is so much clearer today and a great deal easier to summon. 

Before pointing out the fact that I am the one who has changed, it was obvious to me that the real change was geographic in nature.   My continuing southbound exodus, from New York City to the Annapolis, Maryland area and then on to Jacksonville, Florida...surely put me in contact with people who were increasingly more laid back and easy going.  Each new home turf gave me fewer and fewer reasons to add unwanted stress to my life.  Besides... the very idea of mellowing is objectionable.  It suggests something akin to food left out on the table overnight, and equating mellowing with spoilage is uncomfortable.  Surely you can see my point?

Fortunately, on a completely different level, I am pleased with my new and hard fought outlook on life.  Perhaps after all of these years I have finally grown up.  Who wants to be mellow when he can be mature?  So perhaps I am less likely to single out an asshole in the crowd.  I am also more likely to demonstrate patience.  While the Floridian resident in my mirror doesn't fight with anyone...  the desire to "make love not war" is no longer just a figure of speech to me.   (Although I am not making love nearly as often as I would like ... the improvement in the ratio is encouraging.)     

 So... as I revel in the exporation of my newly mellow condition, I choose to see these as life lessons which will help me to avoid low hanging obstacles and walls that I typically collided with in my younger days.  (There were many such walls and obstacles.)  The idea of a blog that can serve as a forum for sharing and exchanging thoughts about such things... is appealing.  You may even choose to disagree.  The newly mellow fellow won't have a problem with that.

~Harp~