Blog 809 – 10.29.2017

“I Have To Admit It’s Getting Better”

I have many friends and I too have heard it said that one only has a few close friends and many acquaintances but I just don’t buy it. If we do not have a lot of friends we just aren’t trying hard enough or we just aren’t being friendly enough. Some years ago I heard a gentleman well passed one hundred years old being interviewed about what the secret of his full and happy life into his hundred and teen years was. He said simply that he never stopped making friends because he wanted to be sure to not outlive all his friends. In the sequel to the first movie Grumpy Old Men called Grumpier Old Men, Jack Lemon’s character’s dad is played by the veteran character actor Burgess Meredith and he has outlived all his friends and says to Jack, “I believe God has forgotten me.” Jack’s life long nemesis and best friend and fishing buddy, played by Walter Matthau, finds Jack’s dad slumped over on an old couch he had placed by the lake to fish from. He breaks the news to his friend of his father’s passing in the sweetest of ways. He says to him simply, “God remembered your dad.”

Friends are coming and going in and out of our lives all the time. But really instead of being sad we should be glad when friends, our true family, graduate. I told a friend today that today looked like it was going to be an easy day. Aren’t they all really? I am reminded of a great line from a Beatles song on the Sergeant Pepper album, “I have to admit it’s getting better.” That is how we should see our lives – better and better every day in every way. Mine sure is because I have so many friends.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White