Getting Better With Age

Today's post comes from another plinky.com prompt:

What gets better with age? (Explain why older = better)

With Allan a few short weeks from reaching that age milestone that crosses the threshold to middle age, I thought this was a rather appropriate topic ;-)

The first thing that came to mind was wine, since everyone always talks about aged wine, but since I'm not much of a wine drinker, I wouldn't know. Still, along the lines of food and drink, I'd have to pick Red Vines. They taste much better stale than fresh! :-9 Similarly, hard and chewy gummy bears are delightful, as well!

A well-loved stuffed animal. These tend to be the ones favored by a small child, the animal that brought him/her joy and comfort throughout the years. Some of my favorite stuffed animals that I've possessed for 20+ years, though showing signs of wear ( = signs of love!), always remind me of how much I loved them (and still do), and always brings about pleasant feelings of nostalgia. And if it's still in good condition, it can be passed on to the next generation, along with old memories already built-in!

A good, classic book. Something you can enjoy at an early age, and then read again for the first time years later. I've been revisiting a lot of books that I read as a child or in high school, and memories of my reactions to them and the impact they had on me still lingered. Opening those same stories 15, 20, 25 years later not only brought back a flood of pleasant memories, but because I was reading them through older, wiser eyes, the stories seemed to have likewise magically evolved. My enjoyment of them only deepened.

Sex. This is just common sense. With more experience, you learn what works for you and your partner, and what doesn't.

On a more serious, philosophical note, I believe one's capacity to appreciate/enjoy things in life (both big and little) improves with age. When you're no longer rushing through life at the speed of light, high on youthful abandon, you start taking the time to stop and smell the roses. Pardon the terrible cliche, but it does sum it up. I've never been much for the arts or music (though I took art and piano lessons), and never saw anything beyond the practical value of foreign languages, but these days I'm coming to really realize and appreciate the beauty of such things. Age helps with that. And I think that's a large part of the driving force behind my creation of "Helly's List of Things to Learn" I posted about recently. Life is short. Make the best use of it while you can.