Wrinkles and Wisdom

Wow, the cleancut and obviously new young clerk at Sears said, his eyes wide, You've had this card longer than I've been alive.

I winced at this unintended slap of reality and he immediately began to blush and backpedal. Not that you're .... I mean....that is .....you don't look a day over .....gee, I didn't mean .....

I wanted to show him some pity, should've shown him some pity, but something in me rebelled at this and I let him stammer and stutter his way deeper and deeper. Finally ashamed of myself, I waved him off, assured him I hadn't taken any offense, signed the little etch-a-sketch machine and left, reminding myself that we all sometimes speak without thinking. The difference is that once people of my generation unintentionally say something appallingly stupid, we know how to cut our losses - a brief but sincere apology is all that's required, then we move on. We may beat ourselves up later but we do in private, inherently understanding that to dwell on a mistake is to extend it's life.

Age brings gifts - wrinkles and wisdom, the ability to learn and move on, a ripening maturity that only works after having lived a half century or more and the good sense to think before we speak.....most of the time.