I
had promised myself that when I was old I wouldn’t say “I told your so”
to someone in their 30s or 40s and I have, most of the time, kept to
that promise. I have the bitten tongue to prove it!!! I didn’t want to
hear that as a younger man and neither do younger men today.

Though
we like to think we are individuals we have more in common than we are
aware of. We all go through certain steps in our lives though not at the
same time or age. As unique as we want to see ourselves there are
prevalent stages we all go through.

Yes, many of old men have ‘been there, done that’ but our telling you won’t stop or help you from doing it, also.

Every
once in awhile I will read a blogger’s post by child-men in their teens
and other men-child in their twenties just for the DRAMA and/or to
remember the dreams one has at that age. They have the world ahead of
them and limits or boundaries don’t exist. They blame anyone and
everyone for their lousy lot in life or take all the credit for their
‘smart’ moves and accomplishments.

I find men most interesting
when they are in their 30s and 40s and are discovering who they really
are—what their limits are, what dreams they have to let go of, what
their future will realistically be, where they may have to compromise.

In
the 1970s I read a book called “Passages” by Gail Sheeney that tackled
the subject of just that in men from their boyhood up to their 50s and
60s. (She has recently published a book called “New Passages”, basically
an update on the same subject in today’s world of technology, which I
haven’t read.)

I not only saw myself but all the men I knew in my
life and as years went past I saw that she was pretty accurate about
the different phases we go through.

I still very highly recommend this book to all men just to see what is ahead for them.

There
are about 20 male bloggers here, in their 30-50 age range, that I
subscribe to just to watch where they are in their life, hear how they
feel about things and how sure they are of these things, their
relationships, their work, etc., knowing that a lot of this will change.

I
hope they (and I) stay around to see all the changes that will take
place in their life regarding how they feel about things today, what
their priorities are now, etc., and how most of this will alter—some in
small ways, others in ways they couldn’t/wouldn’t imagine.

And I promise not to say, “I told you so”!