My wife and kids were away this weekend so I was left to fend for myself. I indulged in a lot of solo gaming and general slobbing around but there were still jobs to be done like getting our weekly groceries. Of course I forgot to do this until the very last minute thus it was that I found myself pushing a shopping trolley around a 24 hour Tesco's (big supermarket chain) late on Sunday night.
It was quite a bizarre experience. The supermarket was full of young people. Evidently late night Sunday shopping has become a thing for twenty some-things who perhaps have better things to do for the rest of the weekend.There were couples there as well as singletons but they were fresh new
couples still getting excited over discoveries like which brand of butter the other prefers.
I found myself overcome with a huge wave of nostalgia for that brief period in life when you have acquired the nominal trappings of adulthood but have yet to take on its full responsibilities. It is a strange breathless decade of endless possibility and life defining choices.
After the dreary adolescence of my teens I greatly enjoyed my twenties but I have no yearning to go back. My middle aged self is jealous of the easy physical perfection of twenty some-things but there is no comfort to be had during that mad cap decade. Comfort comes from certainty and familiarity but these are things that twenty some-things neither know nor want during their decade of constant endless discovery and possibility.
Still though it is good to remember and good also to be shaken just a little bit out of that zone of comfortable familiar living that a man nearing fifty has built up for himself. Who knows I might even be inspired to live dangerously and try a different brand of butter this week.
