Ahhh . . . The Age of Confimism

Oh, to be 22 again!

Look at yer uncle!  Young, handsome and full of confidence and optimism.  When you’re 22 you think you are ready to take on the friggin’ world.  There’s no such word as “can’t”, and you laugh at people who try to tell you what’s what in life.  It’s not gonna be that way for me!  I’m not gonna work in some stupid office.  I’m not gonna let myself get fat. Make fun of bald guys?  Yeah, why not!  I’ve got a full head of the stuff.  Conventional marriage?  That’s for chumps! I’m gonna be a star! Sounds silly, now, but back then they were – essentially – my core beliefs

Just when did it all go south?  It’s kind of hard to pinpoint.  It didn’t happen all at once, but it likely started with this strange sense of feeling all alone in the Big Apple.  And then . . . there was this middle-aged (+) woman at work, who told me that I was handsome enough, but I didn’t have “it“. “It“, huh?  Hmmm!  Why would/should/did I care what some retiring Yenta thought?  How could something said by somebody so relatively insignificant get in the way of my dreams and aspirations?  Couldn’t!  Could it???  There must’ve been something in the timing of her saying it.  I might’ve been feeling all alone at the time.  I might’ve let myself think that the old gal sorta liked me, and felt betrayed by her declarative candor.  It might’ve just rang true.  Who knows?  Ultimately, it was my fault for letting it affect me.  But, it did affect me.  I played the part of the banker for the next 23 years, always justifying why I didn’t have the time to go to any auditions.

But, life went on.  “Life’s what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”  Yeah, John.  I hear ya, brother.  So, I wasn’t the Zac Efron . . . thirty(ish) years earlier.  Zac’s look probably wouldn’t have worked in the early ’80s anyways.  Hey!  Maybe . . . I could still play the kid’s dad, or something!  Ginger, call my agent!

Your Uncle Rave