Deep Thoughts Not by Jack Handy

For those of you wondering about the Monster Zit... it's fine now. It lost the battle. I won.
So there.

The porch is lookin' GOOOOOD!
We still plan to stain it to match the door.
Next year: Landscaping.

A guy showed up on our doorstep to tell us his dad built our house and he lived in it the first twelve years of his life. He wanted to look around and he had a lot to tell us about the house - where the milk door was, where the icebox was, that the breakfast nook was original to the house. The floors and trim are original, etc... it was really fun. He might come back with pictures... we sure hope he does.

I didn't used to appreciate old things. I lived in a brand new house once for a while. At the time I thought that was just about the coolest. And it was nice. There's a clean feeling about that that I liked. No old fancy trim to try to get the dust/grime out of. No gaps in anything, no crappy half assed wiring jobs to try to work around. There's something really nice about that.
Now, I lean more toward character - even with some of the headaches that come with old houses. I like the old trim and the cool touches people used to put in their houses - back when they thought their children and their children's children would live there too. The pride that people put into their houses was about heritage, not just function and budgets and quick building. I wonder, what if we did that now? What if instead of thinking of a 10 year fix - or one that will just outlast our ownership - if we thought about our kids living in the house too? What if we stayed in one place, built community, built homes, built lives that included our entire families and our neighbors and their families.... What would that look like?
Well I suppose there are some folks out there who would remember. And I'm sure it's not all roses, but there have to be some benefits. I wonder if our culture will ever move back toward that...

And what about us? What if we learned to appreciate more the character that comes with age. What if we thought of laugh lines as Decorative Scroll Work? What if we didn't disdain the aging process so much? What if we didn't fight so hard against growing older but embraced it in ourselves and learned to respect the wisdom that comes with age and gray hair in others? Well, often wisdom comes. Other times........... yikes.

I wonder if there's a fad involved here. Remember when everyone painted all the trim in their houses? The thing was to "brighten everything up!" And now people spend dollars galore and time and sweat and tears to strip trim and restore the beauty of the wood. The old, old wonderful wood.

Maybe that will happen with people too. Someday maybe it will be in fashion to let our real selves show. The gray hair, the wrinkles, the liver spots. Maybe someday Anti Wrinkle Cream makers will go broke. Maybe someday it will be in vogue to listen to old people when we need advice and take time for them and to respect them. Maybe it will be cool to not fight so hard against who we will inevitably become no matter how hard we try to kick and scream and dye and cream away our fears.