That's Life

Well, it’s finally happened.  It probably also happened some time ago but they finally let me know about it.  Somebody didn’t know who I was and so described me to another other person.  The somebody said, “That older guy, the one with the gray hair and glasses.” When I heard of myself being described that way I had to go into a restroom, where there was a mirror, and take a look for myself.  Yes, it was true, yet I couldn’t believe it. Is this who I am to others? Can’t they see who I really am?

Yet I have described another man, or other men—probably numerous times—as  “That older guy, the one with the gray hair and glasses,” and the picture in my mind’s eye certainly was someone about 30 years older than I happened to be at the time and focused on some superficial aspect of the person.  

Everybody has been described as ‘that nerdy guy,’ or ‘that fat woman,’ or ‘that boor,’ or ‘that ignorant…,’ or 'that old gray-haired guy.'  But who are they, really? I suppose it has happened or will happen to everybody. 

The important point is to have viewed ourselves as something better than the unflattering depiction that we will all someday have to face.   It is then, if not before, that I hope we will have such a firm picture of ourselves as we really, deeply are, that quick, surface or cosmetic evaluations or descriptions are dismissed with a smile and not a resentment.  

The old Frank Sinatra song, That’s Life,  captures the attitude we should all have when the time comes, as it surely will:

That's life, funny as it seems.
Some people get their kicks,
Steppin' on dreams
But I just can't let it get me down,
Cause this big old world keeps spinnin' around.

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
But I know one thing:
Each time I find myself flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

That's life . . . .