I like to think of life like a bike ride. The first half is all up hill. While you are working hard to get up the hill you think everyone else should work just as hard as you, that the hard part is the good part, that your body will benefit from the exercise.

Then somewhere around 40 when you get to the top of the hill, give or take a few years, you change your perspective. Maybe it’s a few friends your age getting sick, maybe you go to one too many funerals, maybe it’s that every day you look in the mirror or try to play a sport you used to excel at and realize your body is slowly decaying, but it’s something. It makes you realize you are on the back 9 of life. It’s then you decide that you aren’t going to pedal anymore, you are going to coast downhill and enjoy the ride.

Like others, I’ve always been a car guy, even when I had very little money, I shined my beater up real good. I actually was confused by the person with the awesome car that was dirty and had signs of misuse. The guy who orders the best wine in the place and is chewing gum while he’s drinking it, or the guy with the hottest woman on his arm and he never looks at her. I thought to myself “I’ll be different when my day comes” and I wasn’t. It took time to appreciate things, to truly feel content.

So yes, some of us are at the crest of the hill, we’ve decided it’s not worth it to try and win the race, in fact it’s not a race at all. So were at the top, stopped, admiring the view and we’ve decided we have enough to get us the rest of the way. So we are going to do whatever we have a passion for, be it cars, wine, sports or women (or in my case, all of the above). And I’m done pedaling, I’m done judging, I’m done worrying about what others think (well put svelte) and I’m certainly done with worrying about energy policy and what other people drive. You change the world, I already did, now I’m going to enjoy it.

p.s. brian, I have a solution to help you gain wisdom quickly and it may pay dividends to your love life as well. Find a woman who is everything you dislike, for example and uneducated woman who drives a monster truck, lives in a trailer or was raised in one, eats processed food and smokes. Even better if she’s a little chunky, since you dislike fat people. Someone without a passport, who dislikes other countries and cities. She votes republican, has tattoos and I’m thinking at least one illegitimate kid as well. Then look past it all, find out who she is inside, give her an honest chance and fall madly in love with her. You might just find she’s a better person and loves you more than any woman you have ever met, especially those who are just like you. No matter what happens, even if it ends badly, you’ll be better person for it. You”l learn you can appreciate someone without changing them. You will get a ten year fast forward in your journey and learn that everything you used to think about people was wrong. You will reach that conclusion eventually but it will take many friends, girlfriends and experiences to get there, this will just speed up the process. Trust me.