70 going on 20
by John A.
I like Irwin’s line of thinking. Read it here!
For a long time I use to let things get under my skin and voice my thoughts: whether it was about politics, taxes, media or the millennials. Regardless of what I said or thought when posting in blogs that I use to write, nothing was going to change people’s thinking. People are going to believe what they want to believe despite presenting argument why they might be wrong. That doesn’t mean I don’t express my thoughts from time to time, I just don’t takes life so seriously anymore. No one wants to listen to an old curmudgeon anyway.
So I took a different approach in life and found things much nicer. I am smelling the roses, listening to the birds, feeding the squirrels, learning to turn wood, ham radio and occupy my time with many other activities that bring joy to my life. I am now 70 years of age going on 20 by keeping humor in my life. I am always game for hearing and passing on a joke or funny story. More importantly, I am spending time with the love of my life, my wife, who I have known for 47 years. What more could I ask for?
Sure, I wake up with aches and pains which come as a result of aging and a serious accident a few years ago. Despite those things, I do keep trying to push forward in life to remain active. There are other things such as poor long time abusive family relations that I have no control over and found support through my friendships. As I have grown older, I have learned you can’t pick your family, but you can certainly pick your friends. My friends are my family. Knowing this makes life much nicer. There is always time to weed out the negative parts of life and replace with positive ones.
I’ve come to realize there are folks out in this world who may have differences of opinion on politics and religion, they are still good people who can enhance one’s existence in this seemingly crazy world. I am reminded of Norm, a retired dentist , who was a polar opposite of my line of thinking politically. For years He was my best friend, a father type figure, who I could seek out his thoughts and opinion when I needed someone to speak with and get another point of view. His 90+ years of life experience could still provide valuable feedback to a 70 year old man. Now he is gone and I miss him and his friendship. That’s one more thing I have learned; a man is judged by the company he keeps. Despite differences of opinion on certain things with some friends, I am a still wealthy man.
And finally, I discovered the axiom "the person with the most toys at the end of the game wins" is not true. What I have learned what is important is how you play the game and accept the fact we don’t always win. That’s a fact of life hard for some to accept and why we, as people, might not get along all the time. It!s a time to roll with the punches and go with the flow.
Thanks for your thought provoking posting, Irwin!
