It’s a simple thing but I make a conscious effort to smile
at the people I love and the other people who are important in my life. I do
this because one day I noticed that in the normal course of events I smile politely
to people I don’t know. And I thought that if I’m going to show that sort of
consideration to total strangers, which is fine, it’s better to first show that
kindness and consideration to those I love and hold close.
Age
I am convinced that most people do not grow up…We marry and
dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly
grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but
generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as
magnolias.” Maya Angelou
From
the stageplay Cyberdate by John William Tuohy
Grace
I’ve learned this much.
The important moment in life isn’t one thing, it’s a lot of moments
rolled together. You need perspective.
You need to become old to truly understand that.. Young people are so frightened of old age. (A
smiles comes to her face, she holds up a finger as if to tell someone something
funny and important)
I was napping on the
sofa the other day, and my granddaughter was worried that I was dead. (She
laughs) I used to think, when I was
younger, that one day I would wake up and I would be in old age. But there is no old age, or middle age or
even youth, there’s just………….You.
Milt
Still,
I’m proud that in dog years, I should be dead
Grace
(To the audience)
You see wrinkles on me, I don’t. I see the place where smiles have been,
anger, fear joy, emotions, PASSIONS! the
stuff of life. I think your whole life
shows in your face and you should be proud of that!
Milt
But you do grow
old. There’s little signs along the way
that tell you you’re getting old. Like
you and your teeth don’t sleep together anymore, you try to straighten out the
wrinkles in your socks and discover you aren’t wearing any.
Grace
Your
idea of a night out is sitting on the patio.
Milt
Suddenly, the
pharmacist has become your best friend.
You finally find something you've been looking for, but can't remember
why you wanted it. Tightening your belt
becomes uncomfortable under your armpits.
Grace
You can't finish a conversation, because you don't remember
what you were talking about.
Milt
Your top
three favorite pastimes involve sleep.
Grace
What were we talking about?
Four-second
pause
Milt
I
forget.
Grace
The other thing
about getting older is, you often repeat things.
Milt
and your top
three favorite pastimes involve sleep.
Grace
You see, the great
secret that some of the aged know, is that you really haven't changed in
seventy or eighty years. Your body
changes, but you don't change. You’re
still you.
Milt
We’re always the same age…..
inside.
Grace
I'm not interested
in age at all nor am I interested in those poor, lost souls who insist on
telling me their age or asking me my age.
You're as old as you feel.
Besides, I’ll be never be old.
Not as long as there is some one always 15 years older than I am..
Look, you can't help
getting older, but you don't have to get old.
In as long as you find company in yourself and your pursuits, you cannot
feel old, no matter what your years may be.
We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, yes, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the
soul.
Milt
This I’ve learned….happiness in life is rarely something you
experience, it's something you remember. As for regrets, I have regrets over my
failures, but I think we’re all failures, at least the best of us are. The world is made of people who are always a
day and a dollar short. We just don’t
talk about it with each other, that’s all. You grow old when regrets take the
place of dreams. Age wrinkles the
body. Forgetting how to dream wrinkles
the soul. When I stand before God at the
end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single dream I didn’t
dream or try to make true or a talent I didn’t try to use. That way when I can look at the good Lord I
can say “So God, my friend! I used everything you gave me. That’s the best I
got ”
Lights
off slowly and softly to a fade of darkness
Halloween
Each Halloween for the past
five or six years, we drive over to wonderful and picturesque Shepherdstown
West Virginia, a delightful village in the northern panhandle that is home to Shepherd
College.
The area surrounding the town
is rural farm land mostly and the houses are often spaced a good distance apart
so the local children and their parents parade through main street in
Shepherdstown where the homes are closer and the shop owners stay open late to hand
out candy to the kids. And the local college
students join in as well.
Every year the celebration gets
bigger and bigger and now the town officials close down Main Street at around
dust till 9:00 PM. Most of the costumes are fantastic and very inventive and
clever and the celebration itself is generally a safe, family friendly event.
I do it.
I try to leave everyone I meet
better than I found them. I try to nurture and build those I care for. I try to
understand them and forgive them and hope for the same from them.
I look for the best in people
and I find it….. a lot.
I do it. I
leap at life. I take opportunities. I take chances and when those things don’t work
out for me I hold no regrets. Life is simply too short to regret our choices.
I deal with the world the way it is, not as I
wish it were. I don’t want to be one of
those people who spends their whole life waiting to live.
Despite all my many efforts
Despite
all my many efforts it’s difficult for me not to keep defining myself to myself
and to others as something, as one thing or several things that I am. I say
despite all my many efforts because I don’t want to define myself at all because
that limits me to a specific role in life and I don’t want to live my life that
way. And defining myself as one thing narrows me to what was, to the past of
becoming something and that defeats my purpose and my efforts of living in the
here and now.....my life, my rules.
Imagine this clown at your car window
Enjoy
“Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh
never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until
they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of
yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay
before you and how fabulous you really looked. You’re not as fat as you
imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real
troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried
mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing
everyday that scares you. Sing. Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts,
don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss. Don’t waste your
time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind, the race is
long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you
receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, and tell me how.
Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements. Stretch. Don’t
feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most
interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their
lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. Get plenty
of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe
you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t,
maybe you’ll divorce at 40, and maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your
75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much
or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody
else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or
what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it, but in your own living room. Read the
directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they
will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents; you never know when
they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to
your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold
on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older
you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in New
York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California
once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable
truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and
when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable,
politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your
elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund,
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run
out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will look
85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from
the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for
more than it’s worth.” — Baz Luhrmann, Everybody’s Free (To Wear
Sunscreen)