Writers 
What does getting older teach you about life?
The dozen people on the entire planet who actually care what you say or how you behave all sit together at the dinner table on Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you wear one black and one brown shoe, or fart on the subway, no one will call you out. Unless you actively harm someone, you might as well be invisible.
Owning a few really nice things is way better than owning a whole bunch of shiny junk. Nice things work well and last a long time. Shiny junk breaks right away and is discarded.
The clothes, the books, the kitsch you accumulated, are all going in a Dumpster the week after you die. There is no penalty for getting rid of it sooner.
Nobody ever lay on their deathbed and wailed, “I really wish I had spent more hours at work!” At the end of your life, your human relationships are all that will seem important to you.
There are acquaintances, and there are friends. An acquaintance will help you move a couch. A friend will help you move a body, at least conceptually. You may have a lot of acquaintances, but true friendship is rare. Looking at it another way, when the shit hits the fan in your life, all the acquaintances will split. Only your friends actually come to visit you in the hospital or help you get back on your feet after.
Some persons who asks to borrow money from you will may never pay you back. Some are asking you because everyone else has deemed them to be untrustworthy. Lending money is a great way to kill unworthy friendship . That person will come to dread every contact with you, because it will be a reminder of their indebtedness.
A company does not care about you, no matter what they say. No matter how much praise they heap on you, they will cut you loose in a heartbeat when economic times get tough. The only loyalty you owe them is to do a full day’s work for each day’s pay.
They label your emotions for you in nursery school. They say, “Oh, I can see that you are very angry.” They say, “Are you having a good time?” The only emotion they do not teach you about is grief. You learn about grief from media depictions of women wailing and throwing themselves on the coffin, of people devastated and catatonic with loss. But that is not grief. Grief is whatever you feel after a loss, and whatever you feel is OK. It’s OK if you are able to continue with your routine while grieving. It’s OK if it’s just a quiet sense of incompleteness, of a hole shaped like your loved one.
My hair and beard are a beautiful silver color. In fact, I am more satisfied with my personal appearance than I have been since I was 10. I wish I was a little stronger, but I am generally in really excellent health. Aging is not always about deterioration.
