“I’m Getting Too Old For This Shit.”
The most overused Hollywood line has reached the end of the line.
Many is the time I have heard those immortal words “ I’m getting too old for this shit.” emanating from the mouth of some Hollywood superstar like Paul Newman. Usually they are words spoken by a character who is tired of coming to the rescue. Tired of being the hero called in at the last minute to do something superhuman, against all odds, something that nobody else will or can do.
And now I hear myself uttering the self same words. But in my case I never was a hero to anybody really. Nobody ever depended on me to quench the flames of a towering inferno and save the lives of all inside the building. And yet still I mutter to myself that oh so familiar line every time I set out to do something. And what amuses me in a slightly perverse sort of way is that that something can be the most trivial domestic chore a far cry from saving a thousand lives.
My wife only has to ask me to help her put the washing out to to dry on the laundry line and I mumble “ I’m getting too old for this shit.” Or the dog needs to be taken for a short walk. Or a cup and saucer needs to be washed. It just all seems too, too much and I feel duty bound to respond in that tired, resigned way. Maybe what I am really tired of is living.
