Talking To All Ages

As articles are written a lot ends up on the cutting room floor. Sometimes I take a turn to the point a second article is justified. That is called "Having twins." One concept from Angela's book that I overlooked was her interview question "What would you say to your ___ old self?"

People usually settle on eighteen. I have access to my whole life so my younger self is not surprised at how mundane the current cycle is. At least I can rent a car. Renting cars and having relationships with the possibility of intercourse are the only true differences between adulthood and childhood.

At various times Angela asks "What would you say to you twelve year old self?" What would you say to your fifteen your old self?" and "What would you say to your seventeen year old self?" That is three different answers.

Janis Ian answered what happens at seventeen better than I ever could. My twelve year old self would be waiting for a baby. I really did not think about that woman until she was born.

Hardly a moment goes by without feeling her impact. Taking her at face value and giving her a chance when adults treated me like an idiot was a major change. My father treated me like an ignoramus and out of the other side of his mouth he expected me to get good grades which would lead to college and in his castle in the sky, a job with a lot of money.

That relationship is more complicated than the Presidency of Richard Nixon. My fifteen year old self could be told that a train was going to hit me at sixteen. If I were actually hit by a freight train it would have been easier to recover from than that divorce.

At fifteen I was finding my way, making progress. It was completely derailed by the fantasies of adults. What would I tell my eighteen year old self? "You will never have to sit through therapy again."

Work it out for yourself. I wasted so much time in therapy with multiple doctors. None really sounded different than any others. They were glorified motivational speakers. It wouldn't surprise me in they lived in a van near the river.

Who says "Everyone needs a coach?" Coaches who are spreading the disease. John Lennon is my coach and he said "Every man has a woman who loves him." It still sucks that he and Yoko were denied forty-five years of wedded bliss.

The Beatles- together and solo- have more good advice than any coach on LinkedIn. Invest in used records. Should I have told my sixteen year old self the LP's I was buying would go up in value? They have different value as well.

I don't think taking the DeLorean up to eighty-eight miles per hour and trying to warn my younger self would do anything. After high school I worked closed to the old school. I saw many in uniforms who smoked cigarettes. I could tell them "Smoking is bad for you". They have to figure it out for themselves. Not unlike voters who thought some guy talking to Joe Rogan would actually lower prices or do anything besides harassing Latinos trying to make a living.