Blog 825 – 11.25.2017

It Must Be Tough Getting Old

Whatever do you mean, Dave? Don’t you know that you are sixty-seven (I almost typed fifty-seven because it really feels like that) years old? Well, I know this body is but I am probably quite a bit older as the saying goes I have more than likely worn out many bodies over countless lifetimes. My Christian friends start to squirm, some of them at least, when I talk like that. I remember when I too bought into all their rules and regulations and very narrow interpretations. But no more – I am open, ready, and willing to receive everything the Universe has for me. For that reason alone I do not plan on getting old but as the Clairol commercial of my teens – just getting better.

The best truly is yet to be. Why, sixty-seven years was just the test drive, now I plan on taking this Baby for a real spin. I have started washing my hair with Baby Shampoo, my body with Ivory Soap, and in the cooler months sometimes my hands, knees, elbows, and the soles of my feet get a little dry and flaky so yes, I got some Baby Lotion for that. Another old joke says, “If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of my body.” Oddly enough even before I really fell in love with Baby I have tried to take care of this body – figured I might need it later, especially after I made it to thirty. Kids think that is old and most kids like me never thought they’d live to thirty. My pediatrician told my mom when I was a boy that I had a heart murmur, not to tell me, but just let me do anything I thought I could. I remember the first time I got my heart broken thinking that was probably how I would die maybe in my fifties. It didn’t happen so I have changed my mind. No heart attack is going to get me, no TB, cancer or stroke as were the exit props for my grandpas and my dad’s plays. Okay, Smart As…a whip guy (fooled ya), how do you plan to die – in a trot doing what I love to do best, which is living everyday like it was my first and last. It really is you know, our linear concept of time is only a construct in our own minds. Right now, today, is the Eternal Moment where all that is real resides.

That being said the idea of getting old is just a part of that construct and no more real than the energy we give it. I ate lunch today at Irma’s Cafe in Argyle, Wisconsin. I try to eat there anytime my work has me in the area. But today I got to meet Irma. What a privilege. She started the cafe forty years ago and her lovely daughter my waitress today said she was right there with her mom on the day Irma’s Cafe opened. Irma said she was grateful for the things that she could do and did not spend a lot of time thinking about what she can no longer do. A pretty good receipe for Happiness I think – being grateful for what we have and can do and not worrying about what we don’t or can’t. Those two words are so negative, you are really bringing me down, Man. I never smoked, cigarettes or pot, not judging anyone who has or does, just never wanted to, smoking just did not seem to me to be good ways of taking care of Baby. Did I mention, of course I did, how much I love to hear Dianna Ross and the Supremes sing Baby Love?

My mom who was afraid of getting old as long as I knew her. I met her in the hospital when she was nineteen getting over her second case of pregnancy, when I was born in case you are not following me. She was so afraid of dying that at sixty-nine before she turned seventy – she hurried her own death. I don’t judge her for that. I am just sorry I did not get to have her around longer and that her adventure was not a happier one for her.

I plan on sticking around as long as I can, but not on getting older just better, and having the time of a lifetime.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

In it for the long haul,

David White