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Letters from North America Someone once said…”You’re only as old as you feel.” Well, sometimes I feel I am 125 years old….then again, I don’t feel any different than I did at 25 or 30 years. The reason for this comment is that a fellow came in to see me yesterday for a job. Now, he looked fairly old. But I guess what struck me as sad…was the fact that in addition to looking old…he acted old. Well, in our conversation we got to talking about things we had in common and so forth…come to find out he had just retired from a major computer company after 30 years of service and was actually only 52 years old. That’s 4 years younger than I am. I described the job that was available and he stood up and declined it…saying “I’m too old for this…not looking for anything along these lines.” We talked |
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for a few minutes and he left. I got to thinking about this event and drew the conclusion that some folks seem to get old before their time. Now, I don’t want to be working as hard when I’m 65 or 70 or whatever, but you know work makes you stay active, both mentally and physically. I had many police officers friends of mine that I used to work with who retired at a fairly early age. The next thing you knew they were dead. They just seemed to die due to a lack of activity or even some form of stress. On the other hand I know of people who retired at one position and went on to do another one…lots of folks go back to school for one reason or another. I know that I can’t do the things I once did. I don’t keep up with the latest music on the radio, and don’t try. I’m still stuck in the 60’s where music was music and you could understand the words. The only social commentaries we heard were ballads….not too much in common with some of the stuff of today. But that’s another column. Anyway, I find that the folks that are active in one form or another are the ones that live the longest. These are people that work at something to stay in touch with the rest of the world. If they don’t work, then they volunteer for some kind of service work. We all know of people who said to us…”When I retire, I’m going to just kick back and fish or play golf every day.” I venture to say that that probably would get old after a while. I don’t know and probably will never know what that is all about since I plan on working at something until they haul me out. Life is entirely too short to just quit and rock on the porch. I see those commercials with those guys water-skiing or bungee jumping and I think to myself…”I could do that…” I don’t know when, but I think I can and that’s about all you need to get things done is a “Can do” attitude. There is a ton of stuff that we can all be doing that needs to be done. We can all think of someone that needs an extra hand or a few bucks. I don’t want to get into long stories since I’m about out of space, but you know you can’t take the money with you. My mother happened to be one of the greediest people I think I have ever met. She lived for money. She didn’t give any away, she didn’t help anyone and she died a miserable old woman, all alone. She sure couldn’t take that stuff with her. There is just so much we can have or hold on to. If you want to travel. do it. If you want to buy something, do it. But look around…there are a lot of good hardworking people out here, maybe even your kids or relatives, that just need a little something. Sure, you might not get it back…sure they might come back and want more……but if you have everything you need….what does it hurt to help? Call me crazy, but I’d like to go out the same way I came in…with nothing. Makes a lot of sense to me, and if I do have to eventually slow down and sit in a rocker somewhere, well the idea that I tried to make someone else’s life a little easier makes me feel good. It also keeps me going since I have lots more to get done…