The Joys of Looking and Being Older

Yesterday on my way to work, I experienced one of those joys of looking and being older.  In my mind, I planned a blog post about it.  But by this morning, I had totally forgotten and was wracking my mind for ideas of what to blog about. 

Then I checked out a new blog-friend, Miriam, and read how she celebrated her 65th Birthday.  There aren't too many bloggers older than I am!

I'm old enough to travel half-price on Israeli buses.  Here in Israel, those "senior citizen" tickets are called vattik, "veteran tickets."  Actually, that's a nicer euphemism than the American term, at least in my opinion. 

This post isn't about the financial aspect of traveling, since our bus fares in Judea and Samaria are subsidized for security reasons.  Everyone pays half-price to get people on the bullet-proof buses, which was begun when Ehud Barak was Prime Minister and Arab terrorism was deadly frequent.  Shooting vehicles was their method of choice.  Traveling was dangerous and stressful.

But the point of my story isn't terrorism either.

Yesterday when I got on the bus it was packed, standing room only.  I was just glad that the driver was letting us on.  Sometimes they don't, because it's against regulations for them to drive with standing passengers.  Within a minute or two a young soldier caught my eye to indicate that he was giving me his seat!  If I had been a decade or so younger, the chances were that I would have stood the entire trip to work.  I certainly didn't mind looking old when it gave me a seat in the bus!  And as I walked back to that seat, a young mother offered to hold her two kids in her lap so I could join her.

And not to leave you thinking that I really look decrepit, at work a couple of friendly young Arab women guessed my age at a decade younger.  I thank G-d for my good genes!