That look like about a ’77 Ford to you, Wendell?
It could be.
I’d say it is. Not a doubt in my mind.
The old boy shot by the highway?
Yes, sir. His vehicle.
Man killed Lamar’s deputy, took his car, killed that man on the highway, swapped for his car, now here it is and he’s swapped again for God knows what.
That’s very linear, sheriff.
Age’ll flatten a man, Wendell.
Yes, sir.
I suppose I could have realized this much earlier, but it took tastytrade’s YouTube channel for it to hit me. Looking out at the world from these eyes and spending precious little time in front of any mirrors, I have spent my adult life assuming I looked more or less like this.
Now that tasty has made it their mission to popularize my daily show, I have been confronted with regular screen grabs of my face and had the shocking disappointment to realize that I instead have morphed into something more like this:
As a person who has dedicated much of his thinking of trends, this is a troubling one, because I know it’s only going to get worse.
This isn’t just about cosmetic vanity, however. Like many of you, I can sense time going by more swiftly every year. What used to seem like an eternity as a child passes by with barely a thought in my present day. Added to which, I’m sure this perception of time’s passing will only accelerate. Those older than me must feel each year flick by with each blink of their eyelids.
Perhaps it comes from me being the youngest of four, but it also occurs to me that I have spent my life assuming someone else – – a grown-up, if you will – – was going to take care of things. I looked up to leaders. Those whose experience, thinking, and wisdom far surpassed mine, and I lived with the supposition that the adults in the room would take care of things, even while growing up in the shadow of the Cold War.
Only in recent times do I realize, to my horror, that I’m the grown-up in the room. Some of our most important figures in society are, in fact, younger than me, and obviously that relationship is only going to exacerbate. And, much as I hate to say it, I’m afraid that many of our most powerful figures lack the intelligence, wisdom, and character that I had assumed would always be present in the being of such figures.
The passing of time changes ratios. As we approach the 250th birthday of the founding of the U.S., I realize that my own little life represents almost a quarter – – a full 25%! – – of our nation’s entire history. Having just watched the new Netflix biopic on George Washington, it is stunning to me that the ruler of my life is actually a meaningful portion of the yardstick of our nation’s entire existence.
Even our beloved Slope adheres to this rule, since by the same comparison this little website will constitute nearly 10% of the age of our once great Republic. Incredible, isn’t it? I think so, at least.
And with age, of course, brings death. The year 2005 is so, so long ago, and we have been witness to so many Slopers passing away from here. I mean, let’s level with each other – – the sort of things we talk about here aren’t exactly a big draw for young teens. It’s mostly a bunch of old fellas, and it’s simply a fact of life, and a fact of Slope, that we will see fewer sunrises in our future than we have seen in our past.
There’s no big conclusion here. No real point. It’s just been on my mind, and since I’m not sure what else to do with myself, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me until I do that final post, no telling how many years it will be from now. Just have a heart and use some filters on by photo by then, OK?
