The Obama candidacy has gnawed at me for days, and I finally figured out why: He's 45. Younger than I am. I suppose that's one of the milestones in a man's life -- when he finds himself facing the serious possibility of voting for a younger person for president.
(I still recall how annoyed I was to realize that the girls in Playboy were born after I was...)
Just now I heard an astonishing performance of the Mahler Symphony #1 by a Venzuelan conductor named Gustavo Dudamel. I know that score so well I could almost conduct it myself -- and yet Dudamel made every note sound brand new. And you know what's really astonishing? This freaking genius was born in 1981. Look at him. He's practically a fetus!
And how old was Mahler when he wrote the thing? 28, if I recall correctly. He'd just been dumped by a pretty young singer and thought that his whole damn life was over. Young men tend to think that way.
Older men too, alas.
1 comment:
Oh, relax about your age, Joseph. If 70 is the new 50, and, as the Army tells us, 40 is the new 20...doesn't that make 4...6? the new 26? One of the only good things about living in the 21st century so far is the curious recalibration of the definition for "old" by society. I doubt it can do much to soothe your average broken heart in the young or the old, but still. I can't wait to be at least 35.
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