Here's to the Older Man

A rewrite and variation of "Here's to the Crazy Ones" by Steve Jobs

Here’s to the older man—the original. The nonconformist. The peacemaker. The round peg that makes square holes seem inferior. The one who has the depth of a barrel-aged bourbon. He makes his own rules. You can quote him, disrespect him, admire or insult him. The only thing you can’t do is be unaffected by him because he’s found his authenticity. His character has been distilled by time. Men who are old enough to lose their delusions can make me see life more accurately.

Here’s to the older man, because there’s a part of me that wants to look, to objectify, to consume. A man with age has charisma. He can hold my gaze without flinching even when others find me intimidating. Here’s to the man whose features have been sculpted by time, because I’m not all profundity. I want a face that's affected by a lifetime of smiles and sadness. I want a spatter of grey and a few crow’s feet--purely for aesthetic reasons.

Here’s to the older man—The one who’s not intimidated by solitude. The one who wears real cufflinks and a mechanical chronograph. He listens to vinyl and left pretension behind years ago. I don’t have daddy fantasies. What I want is sophistication. Most specifically, I want a man who moves in a certain way—An older man has lost his ostentation. His movements are unaffected because he doesn’t need to assert his masculinity.

Here’s to you, older man. You spend Sundays preparing breakfast and reading the papers. You don’t rebel to be different, but because you know better. You remember the days when music had real grit. You remember what merit is; what books were like when the world still knew how to read more than 500 words at a time. Here’s to you, older man because years might eventually steal your beauty, but they will always make you more.