The first commercial I've ever heard explicitly targeting Gen Xers . . .

I'm 48, fuck off.

I'll say this when I'm 60 and you're 55.

When you're 60, I'll expect you to shoot me in the head. But I'll try and inspire a younger person to shoot you when you're 60. I don't have kids I can charge with that, just former Ph.D students.

If you don't want to die at 6o, tell me why.

I might hold off on whacking both of us.

Course, I whack myself off daily. When it gets too limp to do that, maybe I will reinstate the shoot me thing.

Viagra can only go so far.

take two, they're small?

Joke's on you, I don't expect to make it to 60.

my grandfather died at 59 (but he worked in an asbestos mine, so not surprised)
My one uncle, a farmer, died at 64
The other developed supranuclear palsy in his 50s and likewise died young (66).

My father however, passed last September at 81.

Really messed up my expectations...

I hope your life is long and fruitful.

As for myself, I figure I'll either die because I'm wearing a dress and happen to walk into the women's bathroom, or I could die because I'm T1D in a country that seriously neglects the health of its people.
Of course, just about anything could do it.

I totally get it... there was a glam/batcave (proto goth) era during my younger life. Back when being a punk was simply called "HEY! FAGGOT!!!".

Even got to go to Cherry Beach here long before it became a cool spot to party in the summer.



America has gotten pretty appalling

I mean, it sucks here in many ways... but yeah, we can get at east some basic medical care and supervision/support even for the homeless.

Most of my life I've been told "your mouth is going to get you in trouble" and in many ways it has. I have, in my youth, stood toe to toe with men twice my size and ... probably 4 times my physical capabilities. I know it's only by the grace of God(dess?) that I am still alive today. But, age does and should change and soften people. I no longer allow others to upset me about their ideas of the way I should behave based on their ideas of how a woman should behave, what women are capable of, etc.

Here's the thing, you have traded one bible for another. You are still bashing people over the head insisting they follow your ideas of how others should act/behave. and you're correct, in a perfect world, your current 'bible' is correct, but you're still intolerant of anyone who thinks differently. You are the one getting all up in other people's faces and insisting they think differently. I do not doubt some asshat has approached you without provocation, but you do the same, from the opposite direction.

My advice, let it go. Be yourself. When others confront you, stand your ground, sure, but don't push it. They won't listen. you can't change or control others, you can only control yourself.

That's coming from 60 years of experience. I wish you luck.

O, that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come!
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known.

- Julius Caesar, Act V Scene I
William Shakespeare