I hit one of those milestone years with my birthday on Friday.  The big 4-0.  Aside from the high cholesterol, the arthritic knees, the greying beard, the numerous pills the doctors have me on and the extra "insulation" around the midsection, I still feel pretty spry and young.

Hmm… that doesn’t sound like a good start to the second half of my life, does it?  But oddly, I’m doing better than I expected.  Even with the bad knees, I can still jog and run… something the doctors said I probably wouldn’t be able to do again with the damage that was done with my knee.  And even with the high cholesterol, all my other tests came out great–sound heart, fairly healthy organs, perfect blood pressure, no other major blood chemistry issues, no rabies, no Lyme disease and (sadly) no latent mutant abilities either.  I really thought those toxic waste scrubs would do the trick.

I wonder if part of it all is that I’m not afraid to let the little kid in me out to play.  Arts and crafts.  Video games.  Comic books.  Acting crazy while my wife tries to shop.  Being kid-like when I get time to spend with my kids.

So, maybe the secret to staying young is being young… and not fully growing up.  Sure, I take care of my responsibilities and get my work done.  But I don’t stress out over most of it or let work fully control my life. I’ve seen some people who work out of fear.  I work to pass the time.  To make sure my brain gets regular doses of challenges to work on.  To keep my idle hands from tearing apart expensive electronics to figure out what makes them tick.

And in regards to my part-time job… well, I do that to have fun and escape from the logic-ruled techie world of my day job.