Some famous philosoper once said, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the memorable moments that take your breath away." If you are getting ready to retire and have no hobbies I hope you have a lot of great memorable moments to think about while you are rocking in that old wooden chair that has been gathering dust in the corner of your living room for the past too many years and never sat in by anyone. Too uncomfortable!
Someone recently sent me a bunch of pics of so-called memorable moments for some people, but not necessarily for others. It depicted sky diving, bungie jumping, roller coasters, anything causing ones heart to jump up into their mouths. Hey, I admit Im not afraid of flying in an airplane, Im just afraid of crashing. I also find myself very uncomfortable on ski lifts and in elevators. The pics brought to mind many years ago when I rode the cog railway up and down 6,000 ft. Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, and I admit it scared the xzxyx out of me. I would never ride that train again for all the tea in China. (Does China have tea? I thought that was England.) White tea is supposed to be the healthiest. Whats white tea you ask? It is simply the tea that comes in simple tea bags. Try it! I guarantee that youll live longer, which, by the way is relative. Longer than what? you ask. I guess the answer is: longer than we already have lived, which is already longer than some, and not quite as long as others. And since we can only live NOW, not yesterday or tomorrow, I guess LIVING LONGER means that we will at least get to the next NOW that is - wait a minute - NOW! By the way, NOW spelled backwards is WON. And come to think of it, DOG spelled backwards is GOD. And if you have time to think about it, and you will have lots of time when you are rocking and realize that you didnt make anywhere near enough memorable moments when you had the chance.
The Bible spends a lot of deep symbolic pages preaching just ONE IDEA. Treat your neighbor like you would like him/her to treat you. Did you ever own a dog? Do you recall that no matter how you treated your dog, he/she forgave you with a wag of the tail and a wet tongue on your face. Too bad we cant learn something from them.
Good night and good dog learning and tea drinking.
Roland Hopkins is founder of the NYREJ, Norwell, Mass.
