♪Born to be Wild

   Having finished a two-part, nearly three-week vacation/homecoming with the Love of my Life, echoes of our road music resound in my head. We'd equipped ourselves with the soundtrack of our teenage years, the last time we were together in person -- Eagles, Seger, The Who, Clapton, and Weird Al. HA We bookended the latter leg of our vacation on the road between Arizona and California, singing at the top of our lungs as the miles to home rolled by.
    We both married other people at a pretty young age and had kids quite soon thereafter. Our friends went off to college and had their own apartments and adventures without a spouse and kids...and while we don't begrudge having our kids young, since now they are grown and we are still only mildly old, this new phase of our lives feels like a little bit a latent teenage times. :-)
     Cruising through desert, to and fro, we touched upon our mutual desire to buy a Harley and travel --once our three respective youngest have finished high school and we are no longer legally responsible for anyone but ourselves. HA! Jonathan has actually spent the last few days drooling over bikes at the Sierra Vista Harley dealer, and I am fully encouraging him. As the mother of three boys, I have first hand knowledge of the fact that while boys grow up to look and live like men, they remain boys at heart. My friend Nancy cherished that in her late husband Mark, characterizing him just yesterday, " Today I celebrated Marks's birthday. He would have been 56, going on 18, a kid wrapped up in a middle-aged body."
   I too cherish this in Jonathan. I still see the animated boy of my childhood, eagerly telling me about a new sci-fi book he'd read or cracking a silly joke, in the battle-worn, grey-haired but still just adorable  man that is now my best friend -- who still lights up after reading a fine turn of phrase or punning with hilarious accuracy. I've seen this in my brother, too, in Jonathan's dad, and other guys that I have know all my life. Just like we girls look in the mirror and wonder who the hell is that old lady staring back at the 20-year-old who still lives in our minds, they are still young men at heart under all the cares and worries that they have managed all these years. Mark retained that quality, and Jon is regaining it after a long couple of decades of suppressing himself to narcissistic people demanding way too much of him instead of enjoying his kindness and hilarity and diligence.
   Funny that I thought of Mark on my last flight home Monday after wrenching myself away from Jon at the Tucson airport. The verbose couple in the row behind me happened to be biologists for the state of Texas and quite unabashed to discuss their current concerns in the Region in which they work. LOL Yet,  Nancy and I love two different men that share many similar qualities -- kind to all they meet, love their nation and its land, able to keep their teenage boy spirit carefully housed in a responsible, sensible man while tenderly looking after those he loves.
   Next year, when Jon and I get our Harley trike (three-wheeled so these two latent teens don't fall over on sharp turns LOL ) we will keep the middle-aged-going-on-18-spirit thriving. Nancy, my sister-in-law Christi, Jonathan's mom, whom I fondly refer to as Phyllissima, the bella mamma, and my friend Eva are but a handful of women that have showed me over the years how to cherish the boy within the man and keep love alive between young-hearts-in-aging-bodies. As we roar down the road of grand-kids, high school and college graduations, echoes of Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" remind us to stay young beneath the mantle of accumulated years..."Yeah, darling •Gonna make it happen • Take the world in a love embrace". Amen -- and rev it up, baby!