Mwahahahaha!
You’re so funny.
You mean you eschew further educating yourself? You are disdainful of the thought?
That’s funny.
You think that’s how it is?
Tell that to all the cool folks I met in my pottery and art classes. All the friendships, the comraderie, the pranks we pulled on each other. The mentoring we did for each other.
We’d enter art shows together, support each other when we got in, when we got awards. We helped each other get into new galleries, to get new jobs. We’d have great parties at the art show openings. We’d collaborate on projects and help each other out on an aspect of our art that was giving us trouble. Art, music, all sorts of these activities are not necessarily “solitary,” (unless that is the individual’s choice). They are often a wonderful way to meet really cool people from a variety of backgrounds. Hell, even reading can be a group thing—many reading clubs and so forth can be great social events. And they are for anyone, of any age.
There’s a wonderful feeling of doing something that moves other people—they like it, they react to it, and it’s exciting. It’s gratifying to see that you’ve created something that others appreciate. I’ve seen people come alive with excitement after discovering that they can create art, or pottery, or music, or whatever. It gives them a new purpose.
The only problem is, all these things take discipline, some measure of intelligence, and a certain amount of hard work. (I suppose you’d consider that a major bummer? 
)
Oh well, go ahead and continue to consider it “mental masturbation,” if you like. I’ll just consider you hilarious for thinking that.
Tell that to my mom. She stays up until all hours.
And maybe that’s because you’ve “outgrown” it.
Oh, never mind—I won’t try to explain that to you!
Yeah. Bummer, man. Responsibilites. People who give a damn whether you live or die. That sucks. (Besides, there is no natural law that says a person has to be married and have kids at a certain age! That’s a completely optional thing.)
True enough. But all those years of experience, of knowledge acquired, skills developed, friendships forged over a creative passion that knows no age boundary—oh wait, that won’t apply to you, because you consider that “mental masturbation,” right?
Quite the ray of sunshine, aren’t we?
Make sure to buy it from someone who throws it on a potter’s wheel—don’t buy any of that slipcast shit.
Such a plan!
And you mock techchick and me, and make snide little remarks about our “100 cats,” as if our old age is going to be so pathetic? As if we will be objects of pity? As if the others here who have stated that their 40s, 50s, and beyond were actually pretty good—as if these people are deluding themselves?
I cannot fathom that we’d even a fraction as pathetic as you seem determined to be.
You write stuff like this:
Wow. 40 is just 10 years away for you. 35 is just 5 years away. Time’s running out for you, buddy.
And then—what? All the fun ends? You become this toothless nobody who will never enjoy anything again? Someone who will look back with great nostalgia upon their “real life,” and lament that it’s all gone gone gone? Someone who finally starts to wonder, “What am I gonna do now to fill up my days?”
Oh well, I’ve met folks like you before, and if you are determined to think this way, that’s fine. Just don’t assume to speak for the rest of us.
Actually, I think you are half-kidding about some of this stuff, or perhaps it’s some veiled appeal for pity, or something. It must be.
But oh well, if you are actually serious, all I can say is have fun while you are “young,” and then resign yourself to settle down to do…well, something. Folks like techchick and I and many others on this thread will be having a faaabulous time at art show openings, reading reviews for our latest art shows in the paper, getting feedback on our latest web offering, or enjoying learning something exciting and new. And we’ll have been doing this stuff for years, so we’ll be pretty good and experienced at it. Instead of starting to learn it at, say, 50, and feeling “too old” compared to everyone else. (Not that I think anyone is “too old,” but so many people regret not starting to learn certain things earlier. Especially when they realize that they could have started earlier, had they only been motivated to.)
And what will you be doing while the rest of us are finding joy in all our “mental masturbation”? Oh right. You’ll find “stuff to do.”