Perspective changes with time. When I was two, I said no because I was expressing my independence; but that changed. I didn't say no in school because I didn't want to be left out. I didn't say no at my job because I didn't want to be left behind. My grandmother said the right to say no had to be earned. When I asked when I'd earn it, she said - I'd know.

When I was five or six and starting to think about age, my mother was in her thirties and my grandparents were in their fifties. I thought my mother was old and that my grandparents were on borrowed time. Now I'm old enough to know better. As we baby boomers boomed, fifty became the new forty and forty became the new thirty. Thirty hasn't changed, but why should it. Thirty somethings don't have gray hair or facial lines to worry about. They worry about credit lines.

As a child, I drank sodas. As a teenager, I worried about sugar so I drank diet sodas. As an adult, I worried about the chemicals in diet sodas so I drank water. Along came middle age and I was given a refreshing, welcome drink at a hotel in India. As I waited for my room, I tried to analyze the drink's unique flavor. Some lemon or lime. Maybe a bit of ginger. When I asked our guide what the drink was, he smiled and said 7-Up.

Although I grew up in a Republican family, I registered as a Democrat. At the time I didn't realize it was easier to be a liberal when your parents paid your bills. When I had my own family, the shoes were on the other feet; and after I'd walked a mile in those shoes, I became more conservative. Meanwhile the Democrats and Republicans became more alike. To give myself more choice in primary elections, I registered as an Independent - but what I really am is - disappointed.

Time has changed my perspective about time more than anything else. I began to lose track of time when I became a mother, but at least I had living proof of where my time had gone. Now I have no idea where time goes. Days are twelve hours long and weeks go by in four days. Now trying to see where time has gone is an optical delusion.