Letter to 69ers
The writer turned 40 recently. This letter is specially dedicated to those born in 1969.
Reflections on what it means to turn 40…
Dear Sixty-niners,
Good morning! I hope this letter reaches you while you’re in good health. Sometime this year each of us should hopefully be able to celebrate the fortieth year of our birth. I reached that milestone sometime last week! It’s a significant milestone indeed. We have spent more than half of our life’s expectancy. It is time we took stock of our life so far and started charting how we would like to steer it into the future. For the optimist among us, life begins at 40. For the less so, life begins to go downhill.
Nineteen sixty-nine was a memorable year. Man was finally able to escape the Earth’s gravity and set foot on the Moon. I was still in my mother’s womb when Neil Armstrong made that giant leap for mankind. In the Malaysian context, it was the year which would be remembered as a single date, the 13th of May. The year in which racial differences exploded into bloody riot culminating in the New Economic Policy, the policy that gave so much for the average Malay like me, but also caused so much resentment among our fellow non-Bumi Malaysians.
From now on we will be expected to lead. Prophet Muhammad began to lead his people to Islam at this age. This is the age when you stop being called a youth and finally embraced into the mainstream. By now we should be prepared to be called “Pak Cik” by more and more people. If you still keep your hair, don’t fret too much if more of it turns grey. It’s the colour of wisdom, experience and durability.
They say most major discoveries in science and mathematics are made by men in their 20s and 30s. So for those of us who aspire to crack Einstein’s unfulfilled dream of Theory of Everything, well…perhaps we can just let the youngsters carry the torch. But on the other hand, being 40 doesn’t mean we should be pushed aside and labeled as those who have passed their sell-by dates. Perhaps we lack the speed and risk-taking spirit of youth but we can make it up with patience, wisdom and lessons from our own experiences.
Most of us have attained stability in our income and family life. For those men who feel bored with this stability and would like to handle more challenges, go ahead, rock the boat and get another wife! But before you take that big decision bear this in mind. Scientific study shows that man’s testosterone level drops by 1 to 2 per cent per year from the age of 40. So to those who say “Life begins at 40” and start thinking about taking another wife, I’d say they’re in a state of denial. They’re denying the fact that they’re having a severe MLC – mid-life crisis. They think that because their financial status is now more stable, therefore their sexual status must also be at the top of the world. But in actuality they’re just trying to hide their waning sexual prowess.
No doubt many would like to turn back the clock and be a twenty-something again. So much is placed on youthfulness these days. The media is entirely to blame for this. Look around you. Except for pension scheme for senior citizens and new diapers design for people with bladder control problems, all advertisements picture young, smiling faces full of energy and testosterones. Makes you wish you could be 25 forever. But time keeps its forward march and our body ages along with it.
Dear Friends,
Let’s thank God for taking us this far. And let me again remind you that we have used up more than half of our life! So friends, let’s say good bye to youth and welcome the age of wisdom. We have been taught well by our elders and now is the time to pass on the knowledge and experience to the youngsters. So, on this auspicious morning, let’s step out of the house on the right foot, take a deep breath, look straight ahead and enjoy the journey into the next 40 years of our life! May God bless all of us.
Ameen.
Reflections on what it means to turn 40…
Dear Sixty-niners,
Good morning! I hope this letter reaches you while you’re in good health. Sometime this year each of us should hopefully be able to celebrate the fortieth year of our birth. I reached that milestone sometime last week! It’s a significant milestone indeed. We have spent more than half of our life’s expectancy. It is time we took stock of our life so far and started charting how we would like to steer it into the future. For the optimist among us, life begins at 40. For the less so, life begins to go downhill.
Nineteen sixty-nine was a memorable year. Man was finally able to escape the Earth’s gravity and set foot on the Moon. I was still in my mother’s womb when Neil Armstrong made that giant leap for mankind. In the Malaysian context, it was the year which would be remembered as a single date, the 13th of May. The year in which racial differences exploded into bloody riot culminating in the New Economic Policy, the policy that gave so much for the average Malay like me, but also caused so much resentment among our fellow non-Bumi Malaysians.
From now on we will be expected to lead. Prophet Muhammad began to lead his people to Islam at this age. This is the age when you stop being called a youth and finally embraced into the mainstream. By now we should be prepared to be called “Pak Cik” by more and more people. If you still keep your hair, don’t fret too much if more of it turns grey. It’s the colour of wisdom, experience and durability.
They say most major discoveries in science and mathematics are made by men in their 20s and 30s. So for those of us who aspire to crack Einstein’s unfulfilled dream of Theory of Everything, well…perhaps we can just let the youngsters carry the torch. But on the other hand, being 40 doesn’t mean we should be pushed aside and labeled as those who have passed their sell-by dates. Perhaps we lack the speed and risk-taking spirit of youth but we can make it up with patience, wisdom and lessons from our own experiences.
Most of us have attained stability in our income and family life. For those men who feel bored with this stability and would like to handle more challenges, go ahead, rock the boat and get another wife! But before you take that big decision bear this in mind. Scientific study shows that man’s testosterone level drops by 1 to 2 per cent per year from the age of 40. So to those who say “Life begins at 40” and start thinking about taking another wife, I’d say they’re in a state of denial. They’re denying the fact that they’re having a severe MLC – mid-life crisis. They think that because their financial status is now more stable, therefore their sexual status must also be at the top of the world. But in actuality they’re just trying to hide their waning sexual prowess.
No doubt many would like to turn back the clock and be a twenty-something again. So much is placed on youthfulness these days. The media is entirely to blame for this. Look around you. Except for pension scheme for senior citizens and new diapers design for people with bladder control problems, all advertisements picture young, smiling faces full of energy and testosterones. Makes you wish you could be 25 forever. But time keeps its forward march and our body ages along with it.
Dear Friends,
Let’s thank God for taking us this far. And let me again remind you that we have used up more than half of our life! So friends, let’s say good bye to youth and welcome the age of wisdom. We have been taught well by our elders and now is the time to pass on the knowledge and experience to the youngsters. So, on this auspicious morning, let’s step out of the house on the right foot, take a deep breath, look straight ahead and enjoy the journey into the next 40 years of our life! May God bless all of us.
Ameen.
