Let’s live as long as we are alive
SEPTEMBER 24, 2007 (MONDAY) – Today is my birthday, and I just can’t believe I am actually 76 years old. I know I am, because I can remember isolated events in almost every one of those years.
Call me crazy, but I can remember being in my high chair, looking at my hands and comparing them in size with my father’s hands. And, now you’re really going to think I’m nuts, I remember some of my babbling as I was learning to talk. Somehow I knew that I wasn’t making it, as far as speaking words like my parents, but I knew what I was trying to communicate, and I was giving it a try. I don’t remember anything going on in my head verbally, because I had not reached that stage of development, but I definitely did try to get across some kind of basic idea. Please do not try to help me with my mental fantasies — if you can’t believe me, just let me dream on. After all, I’m an old man now, and you have been taught to be kind to old folks.
I find it hard to think of myself as old because the Lord has blessed me with good health. Most of the time, my mind is OK, too. I am reminded of my age every once in a while when I have to get down on my knees to work on something. It’s a little difficult getting down there, but it’s very hard to get back up to a standing position. I’ve solved that problem by not doing any work. (Pause to give you time to laugh, even though it’s true). We humans do adjust very well to changing circumstances.
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I do try to keep a sense of humor. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” the King James Version of the Bible says. I’m sure that I feel better when I do my best to subdue negative thoughts, although I am not always successful. Pessimism is a natural trait of very intelligent people! (For goodness’ sake, laugh at that – putting myself in that category is a joke if there ever was one).
Okay, enough foolishness. The last paragraph is serious.
Please join me as we make this motto our own: “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can” (John Wesley, 1703-1791). Let’s live as long as we are alive.