The Inner 15-Year-Old

So right now it's a Tuesday night at 10:45, I've played hockey and had a beer and two slices of pizza after the game. I played hurt again, because it's the playoffs, but we lost anyway. I played because it's poor sportsmanship to just not show up, and besides the doctor told me I can't really do any damage to my ankle, just prolong the healing process. I did a spin class this morning even though I knew I would still be tired for the game tonight. I just wanted to. I had to think long and hard before deciding to skip a short run with my still-working friends after spin, because I wanted to do that, too.

My 62-year-old defence partner, who does no exercise other than hockey, was still tired from having done the Sun Run last Sunday. It's the only running he does all year, and his goal is to always run less than his age. He made it in 61 minutes and is still tired two days later.

Somebody was handing out chocolate covered almonds in the room after the game. I ate a whole box on the 10-minute drive home. Did I mention the beer and pizza? Last night, after buying the beer I had tonight, I also bought two boxes of Girl Guide cookies from a mother and daughter selling them at the liquor store. I ate a whole box between midnight and 1 o'clock in the morning while playing a video game.

That's probably enough to introduce today's topic, although I didn't even talk about the state of my living space.

Basically, do you or does someone you love dance to the tune being played by an Inner 15-Year-Old? I'm willing to bet you do. You may only do a few furtive steps in the garage when no one is looking, or you may be spending great whacks of time and money and energy doing all manner of foolish things, but I bet every one of you over the age of 30 are having a pretty regular loud dialogue with your silly, churlish, narrow-minded, shrill, mischievous, self-centred, self-indulgent, and usually fairly joyful 15-year-old self.

 The theory is that all the foolish impractical decisions we make are the result of having the development of our critical thinking and decision making processes more or less arrest at about age 15.

Not that I am supposed to argue both sides of this, but the problem with this theory is that it's lopsided; that is, this whole thing would hold more water if I felt that the quality of whatever "grownup" decisions I ever do make exceeds what I'd pretty much expect from a 15-year-old. Now the theory becomes that the last time we experienced actual growth and development in our decision making and analytical abilities was when we were teenagers.

This doesn't seem like it can be right. It means that a 15-year-old has the launch codes for the world's nuclear arsenals, is making the decisions about things like pipeline development and climate change legislation, developing law and social and political policy...all the while craving pizza and a higher cool factor. Uh-oh. Suddenly one of my hare-brained theories is sounding terribly plausible. I think I'm going to allow Google to keep its secrets in this case.