Two of my card playing cronies, Mario and Tom, turned 65 this week.
Along with 'old guy' gifts which included notepads to keep track of medical appointments, vitamin pills, hair dyes, and a Roger Whittaker album, may I add these sage words of advice for my buddies from a book by Brebeuf alumnus Barry Engelhardt.
"It is a privilege to get old and we should be mindful of that. If we continue to cultivate mindfulness as we age - letting go of the things of youth and rethinking our heuristics, our values, and our priorities - then old age and death will not be things to fear. We have the power to not only transform ourselves but our society as well.
I would suggest that if we old folks care anything about the world we are going to leave to our children and grandchildren, it's time we changed. Racing around and only entertaining ourselves as we did in our youth is narcissistic and childish. We should be nurturing and mentoring our youth, not pretending to be like them. We need to do better than that. We need to conquer ourselves and role model the values we want society to maintain after we are gone.
Perhaps, if we did, we would be more highly valued."
Happy Birthday boys.
And welcome to the Seniors' Club.
No comments:
Post a Comment