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Confronting the big 4-0

By Tim Wood

Originally published in The Columbia Daily Herald on Jan. 10, 1999

It's the birthday that is supposed to fill people with dread. Greeting card companies, candle makers and others produce no end of items that proclaim the "Big Four-Oh."

This is the birthday that is supposed to signal the beginning of the end, the start of one's decline. Didn't someone once say "Don't trust anyone over 40?" (or was that 30?)

As you've guessed, I celebrated my 40th birthday recently. Instead of looking on it as being over the hill, I like to think of it as a rebirth.

Some say the body starts to deteriorate at age 40, but I've already been there and done that. My wheels started falling off around age 35. At that time, I was diagnosed with a serious sleep disorder. In addition to that, I underwent "minor" surgery three times in the next five years. It's been said that the only time surgery is "minor" is when it is being performed on someone else.

A few days before the momentous birthday, I had the pleasure of having lunch with a very wise person. She is a local resident who is the youngest, most energetic 72-year-old I've ever met. If one can have wisdom beyond their years at age 72, she does.

She said that I was beginning the best years of my life. I would now benefit from my years of experience, she told me.

As far as my health adventures, she told that it was good to get medical problems treated at a young age. Indeed, the surgeries I've had all were for a reason, naturally. Each procedure corrected a long-running problem and greatly improved my health. Thanks to the various types of "scope" surgery, I have a functional right knee, I can breathe through my nose and there's no more constant pain from a deteriorating gall bladder.

Forty years of life haven't given me great wisdom, other than teach me how little I know. I knew it all at age 19, and each year I know less. Amazingly, though, my mother gets smarter with each passing year. At 77, she's brilliant.

My oldest brother, Joe, drove all the way from Kansas City through bad weather to visit me. He and his family gave me an early birthday party. they bought me a cake and a mug that said "40 - The Legend Continues." He gave me a card that suggested that I do something from my youth - "play an album." (For you youngsters, albums were the music medium of choice in the pre-historic era.)

My other brother, Jon, called me from Japan on my birthday, and my mother called to impart words of wisdom.

Birthday presents included seeing my beloved Arizona Cardinals football team beat their long-time nemesis, the Dallas Cowboys, in an NFL playoff game.

My wife, Cheryl, made a faithful reproduction of my mother's legendary chocolate sheet cake, which is so good that the FDA is considering making it a controlled substance. She also made another family recipe, "Carmady's Delight," named after a young dinner guest of my mother's family many years ago. Carmady loved the orange concoction that was served for dessert, so it took on his name.

Because my birthday comes around the start of the year, I decided to take a fresh attitude toward both 1999 and the first day of the rest of my life. With some good fortune, I'll make it another 40 years. Perhaps at some point I'll offer sage advice to some young whipper-snapper worried about the numbers turning over on the calendar.

I may not be a legend, but at least I'm continuing.

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