Age: This Tree

It's 1900, and the seed, carried by the wind from its parent, finally finds a home in the soil and take route.

It's 1901, Queen Victoria has just died.
The British empire spans most of the globe.
The first Nobel prize is awarded.
The tree is one years old, and not very tall.

It's 1914, World War is declared.
The entirety of the world is up in arms.
Humanity gambles with its own extinction for the first time
The tree is 14 years old, and the tree has leaves.

It's 1945, The second World War is ended
Humanity enters a cold war of fear
A global mindset is present in all
And the tree is nearly a half century old.

It's 1969, Humanity lands on the moon
It reaches up above the sky
And climbs even higher
The tree is 69 years old, and has just climbed above the canopy.

It's 2000, Humanity celebrates a Millennium
Celebrates surviving y2k, a bug of it's own design
And celebrates the advances of a century
The tree is 100 years old, and still standing tall

It's 2014. A young boy comes across a tree among many
The tree was here before him, and will be here after him
The world has moved fast around it
But, just for now, this part of humanity stops to rest with the tree.

Age: My Dad is Old

In case you weren't aware, my Dad is old.
It's not his, fault. He's been old since I was born.
But back then he was only old.
Now he's old. Like, he's now nearly 50 old.

And, even though I haven't been around for much of it,
I feel like I added at least half of those myself.
Multiply that by 3 extra siblings,
And you might finally understand how my Dad is wiser and wearier than his years.

Alright, let me back up a bit.
My oldest brother was born when my Dad was two years from my present
And three years past from my brother right now
So maybe he wasn't always so old.

But he's certainly old right now.
Despite his love of Pixar
Despite the way he acts around cats
And, well, ok, maybe he doesn't act *that* old.

Wait, what am I saying?
Ok, let me get on solid ground.
My Dad has been old throughout my life, and, from what I can tell, all of his too.
But that isn't the only thing he's been

He's been a constant force of motivation
While allowing me the freedom to pursue routes he may not think best.
He's been there to guide my taste in books
Even while not being 100% at guiding my taste in music

He's helped encourage me to think for myself
He's been concerned for me, and helped me (sometimes) be concerned for myself
He's been there for meals, even when he's been busy
And, though I hate to admit it, he is rather good at puns.

In short, he's been the old person I needed in my life
Even though I realise now he's had to learn to be old as we go
And though I may slowly be reaching an age to pretend to be old myself
He will always be, my old man.

Happy 50th Dad,
Love Harry (the youngest one).

When it's not just the news

There's a lot of static in modern day life
On a frequency that we just don't tune to
But we catch little snippets and sentences
But don't usually focus long enough to realise

That's how it is for the news for me
I'll catch a story every once in a while
But the rest of the time it's just static
Impersonal. Uninteresting. Irrelevant.

"Today a young man in Liverpool went....Kids today I swear....The average taxpayer can expect....Exciting change in number ten....9 Britons died today.....The church of England has radical new policies....We'll bring you more on this as it happens".

And usually, I don't listen in for more.
Usually, it means nothing to me
Usually I'm quite content to let it happen
Because usually it doesn't affect me.

Until I find out it does. That it does affect me.
That it shouldn't. That statistically, I was safe.
That numbers and percentages are so small, they could be ignored
But some days, the numbers just aren't small enough.

I had a friend die in the MH17 Malaysia airlines plane crash.
I wasn't his closest friend. Even though it hurts, I wont be hurting the most from this.
There are people right now who need prayers and sympathy more than me
And I am going to give the every ounce of it I can muster.

I still feel pain. I know he was a good guy. I knew his smile.
Suddenly the news, read and written by people I will never meet becomes *the* most relevant thing in my life.
"Why aren't they mentioning him?" "Why are they talking about him, let him be".
I've read more news today than I have in a long time.

Because today, those statistics they're talking about, aren't just statistics.
Those statistics mean way more than they ever normally could.
Those statistics mean close friends of mine are crying, are sad, need someone to listen to them.
Today those statistics mean a friend has died.

God bless. To all of you, but to one guy especially.

Age: A pre-mid-life crisis

So, here's the thing. I'm just at the stage in my life where my decisions have just a bit more impact than I'm comfortable with. That what I decide to do now may just end up affecting the rest of my life. And, well, that's not the easiest thing in the world for me to deal with.

In a pre-mid-life crisis

The best advice

is to try not to panic and shout

So get on my page

As I preach from the stage

to tell you what it's all about

Time is a finite resource

So, quick! Decide your course

with what you've learnt already somehow

But each day you are given

Yet another decision

which will decide your life from now

Is your lust for money shameless

Do you want to be famous

and maybe end up in Hollywood

Do you want to make an impact

Or just live with the fact

you don't know what to do in adulthood

So now you are stressed

And I have to say I'm impressed

that you've held together thus far

So just take a quick break

Before you make a mistake

and I will try to make it seem less bizarre

Don't be scared to wander

To discover and ponder

and change course wherever you may desire

Uncertainty is no sin

And you are not caged in

unless you decide to create your own barbed wire

Age: To which I belong

It was not a pretty conclusion I came to
But I had to concede that it was true
That I am a product of this day and age
That I didn't write the book of which I make my page

It really was painful to realise
That I would view the world with different eyes
That, were I born a hundred years prior
Being offended at misogyny would make me a liar

Were I in a different place and time,
I would most likely think slavery were not a crime
I might be homophobic, and I might be a soldier
No, this was not a nice realisation to shoulder

I may not have been these things of course
There are those in history who stood up to this force
But they were exceptional, and far from the rule
I must accept that, I most likely, would have been a fool

So now, if chatting with a gentleman of a different era
If he makes an off-colour jest I don't shout his error
I don't condone, or condemn, but try to understand
While letting him know why the joke didn't go as planned

For one day I to may be making jest at fault
Not realising my utterances as pure insult
I will try not to, for this is my crime
I, like most of us, am just a man of my time.

Age: To be young again

I don't want to be young again.

I don't want to be young again,
because I try not to forget there were bad things about being young
 
To have to still be doing work I don't care for
To still be embarrassed about not getting drunk
To be ashamed to develop talents
To have to relive teenage mood swings
To not yet be really thinking for myself.

Yeah, I don't really want to be young again,
because I'd have to undo so much of my life

I'd have to unmeet so many good friends
To respend all those hours working hard
To have to forget so many memories
To be bored for all those hours
While I may not have a spare moment these days, I think I like it that way

Because, honestly, the reason I don't want to be young again
Is because, even though I know 21 is still young, when I start wanting to be younger, I stop wanting to get older

If I feel like my best days are behind me
If I add a rose-tinted filter to all days past
Then I would probably stop trying right now.
Part of me does want to be young again
But much more of me wants to find out what happens next.