Wrinkles & the Greys

Springsteen has a great song about being married a long time - Kingdom of Days - where he sings the line:

“We lie beneath the covers and count the wrinkles and the greys. Sing away. Sing away. My darling we’ll sing away. This is our Kingdom of Days.”

Thought of that a bit as I saw photos of my young nieces and nephews and my not old, but not young anymore, siblings and friends.

We all earn those wrinkles and the greys and knowing that the days are limited is part of the gig.

We tally up the damage done to our bodies as we move ahead, knowing that the youthful bounce back isn’t always there.

But it’s healthy to think of it as our ‘Kingdom of Days.’

I made mention of my boys going out and staying out too late.

I also mentioned that even though I had a spirited youth, I didn’t take such crazy chances and Kathy called me on it.

“Didn’t you drive from NYC to New Jersey without shoes to see the Stone Pony?”

“I had shoes,” I said. “Al didn’t.”

“Wasn’t that the trip where you slept in an abandoned house on a roll of linoleum?”

“Actually, that was in Oswego.”

I laughed.

“But we didn’t have phones then. Our parents had no idea how stupid we were being.”

Then I tried to lift myself off the couch and my barking back grabbed me. 

I moaned.

“Now look at you,” Kathy said.

“Yep. Was the linoleum.”