I’m getting more and more interested in the balance – or trade-offs – between wisdom, aging and the desire and ability to embrace new concepts and experiences. I launched a poll in a recent post to find out what you think about whether or not people tend to live in the past as they age – here are the not-surprising results. It depends. (If you’d like to take the poll, please visit the post, The Older You Are, the More You Live in the Past.)
Soon afterward, serendipitously, coincidentally, I received a wonderful email from an octogenarian in my life. It was a short little essay about his day. I loved it! This gentleman is definitely not living in the past. I wrote to him: “Seriously, it reads like a poem. I hope you are writing more of this kind of thing. Maybe you should start a blog. I would read it!” “You flatter me,” he said. “I just meant this as a piece of foolishness.”
This “foolishness” is a great example of one older person living in the moment, not the past. Here’s his essay, Today, shared with permission.
Today
This morning I went out for a late breakfast.
I left the restaurant without paying my check.
I went to the supermarket.
Half finished shopping, I reached in my pocket for my shopping list.
Instead I pulled out the restaurant check.
After I finished shopping, I went back to the restaurant and paid my check with apologies.
When I got home, I rested a bit.
Then, at 3:00 PM I arrived at a homeowner association meeting.
As the last speaker on the agenda, I made a ten minutes presentation with controversial overtones to a gathering of about fifty senior citizens.
I received many plaudits for my presentation (from those who agreed with me of course).
Afterwards I went out and bought a bottle of Scotch.
When I got home, I sat out on the deck with Eileen and a Scotch, on the rocks.
It was a beautiful afternoon to sit on the deck.
Just another day in the life of an 85 year old retiree.
Have a good night.
interesting post
Up front I acknowledge being 82 years old. Today I spent some time in prayer and Bible (with song from You Tube on my kindle), took my meds, cleaned up, gave a before lunch speech at the Senior Citizen Center, met a friend for lunch, put my “Amy” post on the blog, browsed the blog, took a nap, went to pick my husband up (he had car problems), came back home, went to a Toastmaster’s International meeting, hung around with a few of them afterwards, came home, watched O’Reilly with my husband who had taped it so we could watch together, had a talk with one son by phone arranging to visit him a hundred miles from my home. I will drive there by myself. Shared a bit of conversation with another son. Cleaned the kitchen then came in to play catch up on reading some posts. Made some comments. Found your blog. Hopefully found a new friend. At least I’m clicking your follow.
Oh, I’ll share my biggest problem for the day. My husband parked the car in the garage, then he took a different car. When I tried to get in to go to the center, I could not get my near 190 pound body in the drivers side, so I climbed in from the passenger side. Never tried that before with the bucket seat console in the middle kind of car. Wasn’t easy! I was very glad I didn’t get stuck. But I had my cell, could have called 911. Not too many 190 pound octogenarians did that today!
Glad you visited me today.