I don’t drive very much anymore. Sure, I still drive up and down Highway 93 between our local little towns here a couple of times each week. But that’s only about 50 miles or so round trip.
I miss my long adventurous journeys on the open highway heading off to faraway places. I miss the ever-changing scenery, new faces, quiet little towns full of surprises and I especially miss the physical motion through time and space.
I know that you can sit seemingly motionless in your quiet apartment but you are still very much in motion.
The universe is spinning around you. Just look at the clock on the wall measuring off the minutes, and observe the sun arch its way across the sky from sunrise to sunset.
However, after the many thousands of miles traveled in this life and after all the years, beers and fears, time eventually takes its toll on a body. It’s a bit like how rough roads and harsh weather tend to slowly wear down an old pick up truck.
The recurring thoughts and glimpses of sweet smiles along with the loving memories of friends and family who have long passed and gone; they are there as reminders - You’re still here but you’re growing old pal.
So, in our ever forward march, if you don’t stay abreast or one step ahead, time will speed on by and leave you in its dust.
“You know”, they say, “it seems like only yesterday.” That’s how the conversation so often starts and then you know you’re in for and have to listen to a lengthy dissertation on how things were so different, brighter and better back in the day. The grass was greener. The sky was a deeper shade of blue and the pretty girls’ smiles were so much more radiant.
And you know what? That may have been the case.
Sure, common sense, reason and sanity were much more in vogue back then. You had to work and produce in order to eat and pay your rent. But the dollar was so much stronger then, population density, traffic congestion and the general hustle and bustle of life was only half of what it is these days.
Life was exciting. Music was great. Romance was in the air and your future looked to have a golden glow all around it. This is not a fantasy.
All the above is quite true of course. But we are forgetting the one most contributing factor, the magic ingredient which brought it all about.
You were YOUNG!
You were strong, healthy, good looking, wild and carefree. You had your whole life stretched out ahead of you to make whatever you wished. Life was good and getting better all the time.
I’m sure, dear reader, that you can recall those days if you’re anywhere close to my age. Don’t they bring back smiles and pleasant memories? Don’t you wish you could go back in time and just remain young, carefree and happily in love forever?
Yes indeed. Me too.
Well dreams are dreams and reality is reality. And the way I see it is, after all the disappointments, lost love and faded dreams, we’ve allowed the speed bumps and setbacks of life to dampen our hopes and darken our realities.
But who allows your dreams to be diminished and who is the one who creates them to begin with?
And here today, like our parents and grandparents before us, we walk in their footsteps. They also had their dreams and great expectations.
Seniors we now are. We are old and grey and set in our ways. We envy today’s youth with its vitality and carefree optimism, so much like ours was.
We know how foolish and misguided their motives and efforts are. But, if we were given the chance, we would gladly jump right in and join their ranks, and only for the excitement and thrill of it all.
If we could only live again.
If we could go back and start all over to do it bigger, better and brighter this time. Don’t you know we could shake the stars!
