Mileposts

Each of us comes from a particular time with a certain set of basic information included because of that time. Whether you are a member of the Silent Generation or Baby Boomer or Generation Y - Millennial or Generation Alpha, this is always true. I am solidly a Boomer, born almost right in the middle of that group. It carries baggage, just like being a Generation Alpha will carry, although much of theirs is yet to be seen as we are only six years into that group's life.

One of the things I remember about being a child and young adult in the group to which I was born was how big everything was. Computers took whole rooms in a building and required their own cooling system; televisions were all console models and had to sit away from the wall because of the length of the main tube in the device. Heck, I remember a hay baler my Uncle Norm owned which you could climb up into and included its own motor. And then there were the cars. The first car I owned - a 1973 Grand Sedan - would easily haul eight, sometimes more, and had a trunk big enough to house a small family. I have kidded over the years that I never parked it, I actually docked it.

Anyway, in those days when someone reached 100,000 miles on a vehicle, it was a really big deal. Okay, first of all, the odometers wouldn't register more than a hundred thousand miles, so when you went past that number, it would turn over to zero. This was such a big deal, it was not uncommon to get the family and have them all in the car when this happened. It definitely would have been worth a post on Facebook - if Facebook would have been around.

A couple of weeks ago, I reached a hundred thousand miles on my truck. It was such a big deal I actually didn't even notice it until after the event had occurred. The biggest thing it did for me was to make me consider how long I wanted to own this truck. I decided to keep it for 220,000 miles before looking for something different. One big difference about this milepost from when I was younger is that number no longer indicates the end of a vehicle's life. People routinely put more miles on their vehicles. Many people I know purchase used vehicles with more than a hundred thousand miles and don't think a thing about it. My workplace owns vehicles with well over 600,000 miles that effectively do their job every single day.

There are certainly other types of mileposts in our lives, often regarding age. I hit fifty in 2006 and by all accounts, I was a horrible human about it. I didn't want to be there and I wasn't afraid to tell everyone about it. I actually have a couple of friends that have never reached out to me on my birthday since because of the person I was that day. Last year, I hit the sixty number. I actually tried to be more gracious and think I succeeded to some level. Probably still have work to do.

Earlier this week one of our neighbors turned 100. Now, that is a milepost. He has had a life filled with opportunities to learn and see things that others in his group never did. He has a tremendous perspective on all of it. He lives by himself in his own home and still drives his own car. Many of us (myself included) believe everyone ends up in a nursing home, but it is not true. I listened to a great TED talk yesterday showing that the percentage of older Americans living in nursing homes is only four percent and this percentage is actually dropping. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

What I would like to leave you with today is there are tons of mileposts out there. We see and go by them every day. They are only reminders of what we have done and where we have been. They need not shape us in negative ways. Our reaction is completely up to each of us. Yes, I will admit that more of my parts hurt today than when I was twenty-one, but the things I know and have learned in those intervening years are worth the miles.

If you ever watched the movie Dead Poet's Society with Robin Williams, remember the phrase Carpe diem and go out and seize today. For those of you in central Iowa, the State Fair is going on. That could be a great place to do exactly this. For those of you from other parts of the world, why are you not here at the Iowa State Fair?