MIDDLE-AGED IS THE NEW YOUNG

Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times this morning, Debra Pickett notes that “young and foolish” doesn’t seem to mean what it used to:

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Blair Hull was, apparently, still in his “young and foolish” phase when he was in his 40s. Congressman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) was committing what he’d later call “youthful indiscretions” — a years-long affair with a married mother of three — when he was in his 40s, too. Even the president, who adopted the mantra, “When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible,” to answer questions about his past during the 2000 campaign, was arrested for drunken driving at 30 and didn’t quit drinking until he was born again at age 40, when his twin daughters were already 5 years old.

It’s enough to make me wonder if I haven’t grown up a little too quickly, since, at 30, I’m starting to consider myself a responsible adult.

In fact, I’ve been feeling like life from here on out might be, well, a little boring. Sedate. Like it’s time to settle down, make some commitments and give up whatever bad habits — cheese fries, “The Real World,” bounced checks — have lingered since college.

Agreed. Claiming your “young and foolish” moral exemption makes sense for something you did when you were, say, 19 or 20–to claim it when you’re in your 30s or 40s seems optimistic, but wrong.

On the other hand, at least in the first two instances Pickett cites, we’re talking about Chicago politics.

(You can read more about Hull’s “youthful” extracurricular activities over at PoliBlog.)