Prošlog meseca sam napunila 40 godina. Da li je 40 godina puno ili malo? Ko može na to tačno da odgovori? Ako pitate šestogodišnjaka, rećiće vam da je to previše godina, a ako pitate osamdesetogodišnjaka, on će samo odmahnuti rukom i reći da je to ništa. I stvarno, šta znači broj godina? Šta on određuje? U mnogim društvima kada čovek pređe četrdesetu, otvoreno ili prećutno, smatra se da je već star i da njegov život kreće nizvodnom putanjom. Mislim da je to zastareo i potpuno neopravdan stav, a da ne kažem koliko je štetan! Ja se ne osećam staro, ne izgledam staro, mnogi moji vršnjaci se tek žene i udaju, tek planiraju porodicu, neko tek započinje svoj biznis, iskreno i ja se osećam kao da moj život tek počinje. Sakupila sam svoje greške i uspehe i spremna sam da okrenem novi list.

Neka istraživanja o značenju broja 40 su fascinantna. Postavljaju se pitanja zašto se u pravoslavlju pomen duši daje posle 40 dana, zašto Božićni post traje tačno 40 dana, da li je slučajno Mojsije lutao pustinjom 40 dana, da li je slučajno veliki potop trajao baš 40 dana? Naša poznata književnica Mirjana Đapo, u knjizi „Elysion”[1] pišući o ovom fenomenu, između ostalog, kaže: Uzimajući 40 kao ispunjenje jedne životne faze, Talmud, a kasnije i katolička crkva, označili su ovaj broj kao ’kanonsko doba’ čoveka, što znači da je čovekov intelekt tada najrazvijeniji. Zaista, savremeni psiholozi često uočavaju određene promene u razvoju ličnosti kratko nakon nastanka 40-ih; pogled na biografije poznatih pruža dodatni dokaz za ovakva promišljanja.

Jedna mudrost kaže: neko se rodi star, a neko umre mlad u 101. godini. Za sve u životu postoji pravo vreme, ali se ono ne meri brojem godina. Da li su godine važne? Da, meni jesu, ali ne u onom uobičajenom smislu, sklonija sam da mislim, kao u gore citiranoj rečenici, da su četrdesete važna prekretnica u životu svakog čoveka kada je on spreman da u punoj snazi zasija. Možda je vreme da se neki mostovi spale, možda da se započne nešto potpuno novo, možda da se uvedu neke teške promene, donesu nove odluke, pokrenu neki davno sanjani snovi…

Mislim da je svaka dekada u životu bitna, da nam donosi neke nove izazove, nove uvide. Mi nismo isti sa 11, 25, 30 godina. Menjamo se, sazrevamo, učimo, odrastamo, menjaju se naše želje, naši prioriteti. Jedno je sigurno, čovek u četrdesetim sve teže može da živi po inerciji, ušuškan u laži koje ga žuljaju, žmureći na jedno oko da ne bi poremetio rutinu, ako ništa drugo, ovo je vreme kada i naše telo počne jače da se buni i „tera“ nas da se menjamo. Čini mi se od svega postaje najvažnije kako se zaista osećamo u svojoj koži, u svom životu, a ne kako sve to drugima izgleda.

Na kraju, nekako se vratimo ponovo na početak, prastara mudrost u jednoj rečenici Upoznaj samoga sebe, jer vezu koju gradimo sami sa sobom je temelj svake druge veze i odnosa! Ako uspemo da zaista osetimo svoje telo, poslušamo svoje misli, preispitamo svoje stavove, zavolimo sebe u celosti i prigrlimo glas svoje duše, ne postoji ništa što ne možemo da radimo i sa 55, 67 ili 89 godina. Šta vi mislite o tome? Da li samo brojite svoje godine ili ih živite?

[1] Mirjana Đapo: Elysion: roman. “Arte”, Beograd, 2010.

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Last month I turned 40. Is 40 a lot or not? Who can give a correct answer to that? If you ask a six-year-old, they’ll tell you it is too many years, but if you ask an eighty-years-old, they’ll just shake off their hand and say it’s nothing. And really, what does the number of years mean? What does it determine? In many societies when someone turns 40 it is implied, explicitly or implicitly, that that person is old and that his life is now starting to decline. I think it is outdated and entirely unjustified attitude, not to mention how harmful it is! I do not feel old, I do not look old, many of my peers are just getting married, just starting planning a family, someone is just starting their business, and to be honest I too have a sense that my life is just beginning. I have gathered my mistakes and successes and I am now ready to turn the new page around.

Some researches about the meaning of the number 40 are fascinating. Questions like why in Orthodox Christianity the commemoration to the soul is given 40 days after the death, why the Christmas fasting last for exactly 40 days, is it accidentally that the Moses has wondered through desert for 40 days, did the great flood last for 40 days by chance? Our well-known writer Mirjana Djapo wrote about this phenomenon in her book “Elysion”[i], among other things, she said: Taking 40 as the fulfillment of one stage of life, the Talmud, later the Catholic Church, labeled this number as the ‘canonical age of man’, meaning that man’s intellect is then at its peak. Indeed, modern psychologists often view changes in personality development shortly after turning 40; a look at the biographies of celebrities provides further evidence for such reflections.

A wise man once said: Someone is born old, and someone dies young at 101. In life, there is a right time for everything, only that time is not measured with age. Does age matter? Yes, to me it does matter, but maybe not like in a common sense of it. Similar to the cited sentence above, I am prone to think that forties are an important milestone in every man’s life, when he is ready to shine in his full glory. Maybe now the time has come to burn some old bridges, maybe it’s time to start something entirely new, perhaps some hard changes need to be introduced, some new decisions reached, a long time dreamed dreams should be initiated…

I think that every decade in life is important and that it brings us new challenges, new insights. We are not the same with 11, 25, 30 years. We are changing, developing, maturing, learning, our desires change, our priorities as well. One thing is for sure, man in his 40 can’t no longer live by inertia, tucked into the lies that pock, closing one eye just so you don’t break a routine, if nothing else, this is a time when our bodies start to rebel more “pushing us” to change. Seems like it is becoming more about how I really feel in my own skin, in my life and not how it appears to others.

At the end, we somehow come to the beginning, an ancient wisdom in one sentence: Know thy self, because the relationship that we build with ourselves is the ground stone of every other relationship and commitment! If we can manage truly to feel our bodies, listen to our thoughts, to reconsider our views, love ourselves entirely and embrace the voice of our soul, there is nothing we can’t do even at 55, 67 or 89 years of age. What do you think about that? Do you just count your years or do you live them?

[i] Mirjana Djapo: Elysion: the novel. “Arte”, Belgrade, 2010.