Sometimes there are advantages to listening to the bubble-gum hiphop music my kids like. The catchy tunes grind away in my head, running in a loop, providing a soundtrack to my life.

The latest one to get stuck up there is a little ditty called “Bulletproof.” Only I just realized that I’m not singing it right. The chorus is “This time baby, I’ll be bulletproof.” I was singing it “This time maybe I’ll be bulletproof.” Which goes to show you how a middle-aged mindset can color everything in your life.

Of course a young 20-something would sing “This time baby I’ll be bulletproof” with the certainty that only a 20-something could have. The song is about how she won’t let her loser boyfriend back into her life.

But the way I sing it, “This time, maybe, I’ll be bulletproof,” is a wish and a prayer. Also a recognition of uncertainty that comes with age. What I really want, what I pray for, is to be bulletproof. Not from the stings of a bad boyfriend, but from all the things that could lay me low. I want protection for me and mine. Cover us all with bulletproof skin.