Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I'm over the hill and I left my joie de vivre in the valley below

This past Motzoei Shabbos we finally unwrapped Eric's Yahtzee had a sort of informal "game night". As we were sitting down to play/relearn our new Yahtzee game, Joey was walking by the table and exclaimed, "Ooooh Yahtzee! Can I play?" Now mind you, Joey is not known for being the biggest "joiner", so naturally I asked him why he was so excited. He told me that he's always wanted to roll a Yahtzee and scream "Yyyyyaaaaaahtzee!!!" {with the proper emphasis of course}, like the kids on the TV commercial used to.
Ooooookaaaaay.........
When did I get so old, that the thought of shouting with gusto for a good roll of the dice filled me with embarrassment and dread rather than joy? Do we lose that joie de vivre as we age? How do we get it back? Seriously, I used to be that kid once upon a time. Where did she go? It was such a joy for me to watch Joey be rewarded with two Yahtzees in one game so that he could gleefully give the exclamations his "all" and make us all smile along with him. Could I let loose and do the same? Thankfully, the One Above was good to me.... I never rolled a Yahtzee so I never had to find out :)

2 comments:

citizen of brooklyn north said...

lots of things that brought us joy we now look at with dread. but the upside is things we used to be anxious about we don't care about anymore, things we used to be self conscious about we now say, who cares. and we see more clearly what is worth worrying about. We still get loads of joy, just from other things.

I FEEL very over 40 based on the way people react to me. "that's so youthful!" "I can't believe YOU did that/said that!" I'm like, huh, why wouldn't I say or do that?

G6 said...

You are SO RIGHT. I never thought about it that way.
Thanks!