How old are you?

Back in my college days I  occasionally encountered someone who doubted I was just in my early 20s. To them I seemed to be much older because of all that I had experienced plus all the things I knew about from reading so much. Eventually I ran into the term "old soul" - a person wise beyond their years. Some believe than an old soul has lived many previous lives and has retained some of memories and experiences of those lives. It's an interesting premise which does explain why I'm so comfortable in certain places and enjoying certain activities.

 I once took one of those online quizzes, How old is your soul?, knowing full well that the test is just for entertainment. The results were to say the least, bemusing. According to that quiz, I have lived 1,532  past lives. Even for an old soul that's a lot of trips around our sun.

My gaming friends like to tease each other in a friendly way now and then. Because I'm the most senior member and much older than many who play combat games I jokingly earned the nickname Methuselah- the longest living patriarch in Bible. All one can do with a name like that is laugh. Age has it's moments good and bad. I'm not as quick as the others, but am a more steady shooter - able to make some fairly difficult shots that most folks would pass up. Plus there's good old-fashioned battle magic, old age and treachery will defeat youth and twitch skills.

Unfortunately time with friends has dwindled. The frequency of game sessions has dropped. Chat with other friends much less. Also, the number of people that I used to work with that are still alive has been steadily decreasing.  One by one coworkers from the early days at MFECC have passed away, now it's down to just a handful of survivors. With every obituary notice it gets more and more lonely - you feel like there's no one left to play with anymore....

But that's not really true. I do have my loving wife Jill, our dear friend Tiffani and her adoring daughter Mei. There are also my game friend Tina and her son Talon ( aka TC ). TC has even joined Tina and I in a few sessions of City of Heroes and he's fairly active in Elite Dangerous, though typically active in sectors far away from me. I can always count on TC for some interesting competition in Kerbal Space Program - he being our resident space savant.

Yes, I do miss those people who are now gone. But I do treasure those who are still here. Even though they are few in number, these very kind and loving folk help me feel young. Thank you all.