WITH AGE COMES WISDOM

The problem is it comes too late!

I often wonder how many days I have in my lifetime. I wonder how many of those days were productive, and how many days I squandered. How much time we all squander in our lifetime?

I think the time I used to spend with my kids was well spent, the time I courted my wife, and the time I used to teach myself were all great times, well-spent and for the most part: enjoyable.

But there are some days that I probably wasted. Especially the idle days of my teen years, the days I spent not heeding advice from my elders, because I didn’t know any better and didn’t care.

When I was a young man, in my early teens, my Dad told me I would have to work in my idleness, that days off from school were for earning money, not fooling around with my friends.

Then one day after my college years, I discovered that idleness was a luxury, with children, a house and a job to maintain. The idleness was sweet, enjoyable, yet played on my consciousness. Being idle was becoming harder and harder to do! I had hoped to be an active member of the CPS (Couch Potato Society) as I had my couch fitted as a form fit for my reclining body. It was a great life only on Sundays, when the football or baseball game was on, and I could encourage TLW (The Little Woman) to go to her mothers with the kids.

If the Sunday was a bright sunny day, and the temperature in the perfect range, my idleness suddenly was ruined, by my guilt. I’d look at little #1 Son or my daughter, playing on the floor, and I’d stuff them in the car and off we went to the bay or lake or park, buying them ice cream and then feeling better about going back to the couch. Of course TLW had a little to do with my plans, as did my guilt.

Today in my retirement, idleness is not a factor, because I have so much pressuring me that I just don’t want to be idle, can’t seem to be comfortable with it, and find no way to be part of CPS anymore. I do on occasion get tired, when I do I sit down for a few minutes, and think about what I should be doing, I’m sure like all of you do, the guilt takes over!

I wish I had all the idle times back to relive. I could have learned something else, maybe another language, read or wrote a book, or maybe a piece of art or music could have come from my hand, or maybe just helped some older person in need of physical help.

With age comes wisdom, unfortunately: too late!