h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am approaching forty years old in a few months, and I am not sure I am looking forward to it. I have suddenly realised that I have not visited, seen, done or tried the tiniest fraction of what I had hoped to. Perhaps it's just a number thing, imposed by culture, perhaps it's a time for reflection. Trouble is, I don't feel forty. Thirty at a push, but certainly no more than that.
What are the view of the rest of you?
Was forty good, bad, or not worthy of comment for you?

I'd like to know what others have found. It'll help to put my views into perspective.

This would be a great topic for <./>askh2g2</.> you would get alot of feedback there.

At nearing 33 i am slowly slipping closer to 40 so i should start to pay attention to this kind of thing! Or i can just continue to think i am 25 and carry on regardless

Mort

Thanks for the advice Mort.
33 is a good age. In fact they all are!

I have posted the thread as suggested.

Have Fun.

well, I think that reaching any age is better than the alternative!! not reaching it!!

Jane

not if it's 18 or 21

Being forty or any age makes no difference, you get out of life what you put into it. Only last year I cycled one hundred miles in four hours twenty two minutes
at the age 52 so come on forty year olds live a little, being alive is good.

Forty,fifty, any age is not a problem!!
I was 47 this year,dont feel it, friends say I dont look it (told them the cheques are in the post ), two years ago I took up snowboarding.

Dont let peoples conception of age be your yard-stick on life! Let ambition and your dreams be your measure on life, spend more time enjoying life and less time worrying about it

I am 42 years old now, and yes it is the best...yet.




pedboy U200417

In just over one month I shall be 43, I have more energy now than I did 20 years ago, just as well really as I have to work twice as hard!!

However, I notice that certain body parts start giving in to the pull of gravity, cellulite is spreading at an increasing rate over the upper thigh, more and more little "laughter lines" appear over the face, I use factor 950 (or something like that) when I go out in the sun to try and halt the spread of yet more wrinkles, hairs have started springing out under the chin, I am always armed with tweezers to squeeze the little bstds out when they appear!!

When I go to the hairdressers I tell them, I don,t care what you do, just let me walk out of here looking 10 years younger, a hairdresser "friend" of mine recently replied that he is not God, only a hairdresser!!

However, I often look in the mirror, dressed of course, and with the help of some "uplifting" and "moulding" underwear, discreetly hidden under my clothes, think, oh well you don,t look so bad for an old bag!!

My philosophy?? use all the help you can!! and go out and enjoy your life, yep, 40 is great, at least we are alive!!!

Jane

It may be impossible beyond 40 to sustain a sense of childish wonder. And no wonder! We've been told all our lives that it is unseemly to wander round jaw-dropped in a constant state of awe. We spend years becoming mature and 'cool'.

By 40 we simply know too much and have turned down the heat to 'simmer'. We think there is not much more to know or do, but that's a lie. The secret is discovering and rediscovering the world and ourselves. Keep learning and keep fit. Travel is often best for all of the above. 'New' is as good as 'young'.

No question that 40 is the age of the mid-life-crisis and menopause (male and female). And no matter how healthy or physically conditioned we are, it is the time when the body and the mind begin planning their inevitable demise. The leaves cannot help but change colour in the Autumn. Forty-plus is a season and like all seasons it has its purpose and beauty.

Keeping score of your age or status or accomplishments (as if reaching forty or a certain level of social security were fixed goals) - these are the pitfalls of aging. It is displayed by a constant sense of having already arrived and the nagging question 'what now?' Conversations deteriorate into anecdotal exchanges of medical information, an inventory of ailments, pains and mysterious rashes and flashes, and and obsessive interest in the obituary columns.

If you have time to worry too much about these things then you aren't busy enough doing interesting new stuff - like snowboarding (?) .


~jwf~

JWF snowboarding hurts less when you fall then skateboarding does

Jwf, do you remember being 40?

My father is in his late sixties and he keeps up a work schedule that I have never been able to equal. And he's on his third or fourth career!

At 41 now, I am not conscious of anything but accomplishment. Most of my failures I've become pretty good at, with a few glaring exceptions, but I've decided I was never cut out for them, anyway.

The only real difference between now and my youf is that I have fewer teeth (and less pain) and a bigger gut. Well, that, and the fact that the tinnitus is starting to take on a musical quality...

When I turned 40 I worried that I was seeing the begining of the end. Within 6 months, I had convinced myself that no noticible change, physically or mentally, had occured.

Now, at 43, I feel like I got out of my traction gears about 2 years ago and am now in my action gears. A lot of the burdens of life are lifted, kids can take care of most of the things I always had to do before, running around money in my pockets for a change, and I get to listen to my wife complain about being 41 now.

I laugh more. I care less. I need less sleep.

I can hardly wait til I'm 65!

Ahhhhaa, being 40 something can also be really exciting, you get this sudden urge to find the 20 something you once were!!! Suddenly you get fed up with being all grown up and serious, you need reassurance that you are still as attractive today as you were before!!!! that time, wrinkles and cellulite have not wiped out your sex-appeal!!!

This will all become apparent when you have the need to go out dancing at night again instead of being slumped in front of the telly, those sleepless nights and endless nappy changes are but a distant memory now, the kids are growing up fast, and you suddenly find yourself "F R E E" (ish) so what better way to celebrate this new state than to totally embarris your kids and dance like you did 20 years ago in the disco with them!!



Jane

Jane Austin!

Are you saying that I have wrinkles and cellulite!! My word!

diversity

Are you kidding? Forty is great! A woman peeks in her 40's!!!!
All kidding aside...At age 50 there is a great awakening. It's called post-menopause! Been there, did that, wisdom sets in and you realize what is REALLY important in life. ENJOY 40...and look forward to the awakening...
sign me
"Wide awake and loving life at 52".

i laughed my butt off reading your post. Thanks.
To All Those Women Out There Who Read Your Post:

DON'T DOOOOO THAT!!!!!!

Please ladies, be just that. At age forty, you look silly in tight jeans even if you have a beautiful bod and look younger than your years. We try to hold onto our youth, when we should let go and enjoy the "middle years". It's not so scary...Looser pants, more comfortable shoes, hey it's great! I love it. Sign me "Still got it" at 52!"

hi Barb,

IMHO, most people don't look half as good in jeans (at any age) as they think they do. Also, most people don't seem to have the slightest clue about what they look like from behind.

What's this got to do with turning 40? Ummm . . .

Well, never mind. *Somebody* mentioned jeans so I just thought I'd say that.

I am very happily 46 1/2. And I love my birthdays because it means I'm still alive.

azahar

Well, the calendar nor the odometer are to be trusted.
I learned some things last year that other's have known since they were twenty.
I notice some things that no one else notices, regardless of age.
And none of them care about my experiences, particularly if they occured before they were born.
And that includes the other 41-year-olds.
I still, to this day, lack a grasp of what most people take for granted.
The older I get the less guilty I feel for not understanding what is lacking about me.
Since most people of any age cannot see what is here, then what difference does it make, anyway?
As for appearance? What do I care? I don't shave too often by request of my Uvula and I don't get my hair cut too often by request of my barber....
as for my butt...
it still holds me upright when I type.

I think most people appreciate a well maintained classic. Tight jeans have their place