Life is Good

Labor Day is approaching indicating the end of summer; we move into the “ber” months that take us to the end of the year. So, we put away the white shoes, watch the spider lilies pop up in un-mowed lawns, get out the lunch boxes carrying bologna sandwiches, and celebrate our labor force which we believe is out there somewhere. I want to say; “Whoa, I’m not ready for football, nude trees, and pumpkin spices inundating coffee creamers. I still have Tequila and those cute little umbrellas left over.” Another year is passing me by and I have not made the world a better place. All of which segues me into that age-old problem of age.

            I recently read an article in a magazine in the dentist’s office containing a quote from Satchel Paige: “How old would you be, if you didn’t know how old you were?” A quote to give pause for a moment of reflection. The choice may be to be young again, but the cost is high. The knowledge and wisdom that you gained over the years would be gone. What kind of hell would that be? Afterall in many cases, learning is painful. If I were to choose to be thirty-one years of age, I would have about 30 years remaining in school, birth a baby, raise a child, bury a child, retire, get another job, retire again to go back to work, and retire again. I choose not to go down that path again. So, I’ll stay at my ripe old age, storing away years and years of life experiences, and search for another way to make the world a better place. 

            Basically, old age is a list of things we do:

• We sit on the side of the bed before rising in the morning and wait for the quirk of the day to appear, that sharp pain in some essential body part will come eventually and quickly pass away.
• We use calendars for scheduling, not I-phones.
• We use post-it notes and hang them on the refrigerator.
• We write in cursive and punctuate properly with commas and periods. We capitalize.
• We eat our meals without posting pictures of the food on social media.
• We take our pills every day to prevent strokes, heart attacks, and osteoporosis. 
• We pee often and are glad that body part works.
• We take Metamucil for regularity, probiotics because someone told to do so, and Vitamin B and D for the enjoyment of swallowing another pill.
• We have routine physical exams, electrocardiograms, colonoscopies, mammograms, and blood tests while wondering what triglycerides are for.
• We store our wisdom and dole it out with sarcasm.

            Although I often can’t think of what day of the week it may be, it sure goes by fast. So, I’ll wear purple and spit in the wind as I make my annual trip around the sun. Someday I’ll teach that young person a thing or two and make the world a better place. All in all, life is good.