Act Your Age

I think you should be a child for as long as you can. Don't rush into adulthood, it isn't all that much fun.

Bob Newhart
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I'm not suggesting that anyone should go through what Shakespeare calls "second childishness" but I believe it is a healthy thing to hold on to one's childhood, and hold it up on a silver platter in one's heart. Not the past errors, wrongs, sorrows and pains of early life, but the spirit of what one was and, in fact, still is.

I am for finding inside the boy or girl you were and are. Recover the unlost sense of curiosity, wonder, adventure and surprise. You are still a kid, even if it doesn't show on the outside. There are a lot of things about you that don't show on the outside. If you saw me walking down the street you would think "There goes a doddering old relic, What a wretched wreck. He's probably a drunk." You would never know that the doddering old wreck was the writer of peppery posts and baffling blogs.

I often say to youngsters "Don't grow up too fast." They never like to hear that. I usually get a poker faced silent response. They want to be grown ups, immediately. That youth is wasted on the young is an old saying and a true one. But it isn't wasted on those for whom their youth is still a present quality in their lives. With age comes experience, knowledge and, hopefully, some wisdom. It doesn't have the innocence and preciousness of youth. Too many tears, too many disappointments, too much pain make old age hard on folks. But even if the physical vigor abates why does the mental vigor have to go?

I don't look in the mirror often, but when I do, yes, I see the wrinkles and the gray hair and I wonder who or what I'm looking at. I'd rather look at the future, to look at possibilities, adventures and discoveries. I'd rather see the boy I've always been. Who knows, someday I might grow up. But I don't think so.

DB, Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

14 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
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