You can look back, but it's best not to stare

Perfectly sums up how I feel today...and lately, in general. Hell, in all of life. But those words aren't mine...though i'll adopt them for myself from now on. They're Tom Petty's words. And most of the poetic phrases I use in this entry are from a STAR-LEDGER review, written by Bradley Bambarger, of Petty's new album that I've been meaning to write about. Today just seems like the day to do it. I read this review while lounging on a Hoboken waterfront park bench at dusk last week. I was so struck by what both Petty and Bambarger had to say about, basically, THE PASSAGE OF TIME. How time is both villain and equalizer. How fresh starts can seem elusive, but they are a person's only hope...even one who's middle-aged like Petty. How the past has an aimless pull and we're all haunted by things in the rearview mirror. But here's the thing. I repeat, HERE'S THE THING...REGRET AND EVEN NOSTALGIA CAN BE SIREN SONGS. Petty is an optimist against all odds, and I feel I'm the same way...despite my eye-rolling, viciously sarcastic, often against-the-grain worldview. No, i'm NOT angry and bitter. I'm a SUNNY OPTIMIST! And so, getting bogged down in the way things used to be gets one nowhere. Change can suck. Aging can suck. Death, um, sucks. But you're only 25 for 365 days...unless it's leap year. Soon you're 30...and so on. And life goes on. And priorities change. And that's as it should be. Christ, I could get specific and go off on 83 tangents. I'm just trying to say that reflecting on the past and how you got to NOW is perfectly fine...just don't STARE. Because someday you'll be nostalgic for NOW. And the past is always rosier in hindsight anyway. If you're smart, you'll retain the essence of who you were at 25 and layer it gracefully with the wisdom of the years. And remain vital, hungry, interested, curious...and for the love of God, do your best to keep your looks. I beg of you. Class dismissed! Now go out there and make TODAY something to yearn for 10 years down the road...