The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

Nobody seems to like growing old. Can’t blame em, I guess when you factor in the aches and pains, the wrinkles and hair loss, the diminished mobility. Well, almost nobody, cause I don’t mind. Sure, I got the same ailments, but hellfire, you ought to pay SOME price for all this accumulated wisdom, for some peace of mind, for a more stable financial grip on this hard world.

My brother’s father-in-law, a dairy farmer in Northern Wisconsin who knew a few things about Hard Living, told him at a ripe young age to quit worrying about money. Money, he said, takes care of itself. You’d be better off to tackle the rest. Love, marriage, family, career, happiness. My brother, being young, didn’t believe him until he too was older and wiser.

We used to value maturity. We used to respect the accumulated wisdom of all those years of living. We used to pay homage to our elders. Now that I’m an elder, I sure wish we still did. But we don’t. We value youth, energy, good looks, clean skin, svelte bodies, shimmering hair. We’re a bit superficial. Okay, we’re TOTALLY skin deep. We’d sell our souls to be beautiful, to be athletic, to be rich. If I was the devil, boy oh boy, I’d be banking more souls than I’d have rooms to rent in Hell. I’d be building infrared suburbs, you bet. Plenty of beauty parlors, fitness centers, spas, sports injury treatment facilities, so many mirrors a 60 watt bulb would heat the place up to full sizzle.

You reach my advanced age, you ought to pat yourself on the back. You probably figured most things out. You must’ve learned plenty from all those mistakes. You should’ve learned to live in your own skin. When kids ask who your heroes are, tell them YOU are. It’s not egotistical. It should be the truth.

The truth is, we got this far. Meaning, we had a hearty dose of living, our fair share…. We learned a thing or three. We witnessed the world. We even changed it a bit, don’t underestimate yourself. Pass some of it on to the young’uns. They might listen. More than you think. Just don’t wish you were them, young and starting out fresh. Why go through that twice?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2021 at 3:01 am and is filed under rantings and ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.