Steve:
This is a wonderful post and expresses my own thoughts on the matter as a guy way in his 50s who sat on the edge of a lake in 1990 and wondered why the hell he was doing this and is only now doing the fade.
Many thoughtful replies have appeared here and I just want to second the emotion.
A friend once told me: There is always another opportunity coming; you just have to have the courage of your convictions. That courage is sometimes slow in coming, but the important thing is that it you act on it when it comes.