WHAT IS IT about the aging process that causes me to like some things now that I didn’t much care for years ago? Have I lost the capacity for discrimination between fine and mediocre? Or is it, perhaps, simply that I have no one to impress anymore, not even myself?
My musical tastes, for instance, have permitted once disliked musicians to now find an ear. I never liked Ricky Nelson when he was popular; now I like him. I never cared for the music of Bela Bartok or Phillip Glass; now I listen to them often.
My enjoyment of movies has never flagged, but those tastes have changed too as I’ve aged. I would never have wasted time watching a film starring John Wayne; now I actually enjoy them. I saw “El Dorado” just the other day. Wayne was true to his acting credo: “Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.”
Certainly everyone’s taste in the comical transitions over time. Neither the Three Stooges nor Milton Berle make me laugh as they once did. Their humor exists now in a time capsule; I have moved on. Comics have become more political, more strident, more profane, more scatological. Some do it better than others. I loved Richard Pryor. Don Rickles is hilarious. Joan Rivers made me laugh so hard I risked vomiting, an event which would have violated Steve Martin’s definition of comedy: “the art of making people laugh without making them puke.”
Of course, when it comes to such things as food and drink, people’s tastes don’t change, just their eating habits. It’s not Coke vs. Pepsi so much as Coke and Pepsi vs. good sense. I haven’t left off drinking expensive single malt scotch because I don’t like it anymore; it doesn’t like me, not to mention that I’m living on a fixed income these days.
When it comes to taste, there is no status quo. Not counting the Neanderthals among us, we all evolve. Yesterday’s dozen oysters becomes today’s spinach salad.
Hello HenryM.
I can certainly identify with how tastes change with age. My ability/willingness to listen to all sorts of music has definitely loosened from its previously restricted baseline. However, my willingness to listen to the DJ’s and meaningless talk overs has hardened to the point where I switch off much more often than I used to. I have never been a cinema goer, so waiting for classic films to appear on TV seems to be the way to go. This is made more palatable now that we have ‘streaming’ and the elimination od advertisements.
As for food: Nowadays, my food input is dictated by what my body can or cannot tolerate, rather than what I might like to eat. Most often, I have an adverse reaction to preservatives and spices, which restricts my input to mainly fresh produce. I stopped drinking alcohol, tea, coffee etc. many years ago because these too had an adverse effect upon my digestive and neurological system. This just leaves me to drink plain water and, whilst it does not provide the range and variety of tastes, neither does it upset my system.
I am reliably informed, that this present regime, means that I am getting a reasonably healthy diet, without even thinking about it too much. That is just as well because it is not something I have ever wished to spend valuable time contemplating too deeply.
Best wishes
Bill
