WHY IS IT?

 

WHY IS IT?

Why is that the older we get, the faster time seems to fly by?

When we were children, it seemed that it took forever for our birthdays, Christmas and vacations to come around, didn’t it? Christmas Eve lasted what? 3 days?

Now, I look at the calendar and see that January of this year is almost half over and the Christmas stuff needs to be taken down at least before Valentine’s Day.

I was just getting used to writing the year 2025 when BAM! It’s over and done and now we are into the new year. Where did the time go? It follows that old saying that ‘time is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.”

I am looking back, and I swear, I cannot remember much happening between the ages of 60 and now 83…it went by in such a flash. One minute I was semi-old, then old and the next minute I am elderly. I think your senior discounts start to kick in about the age of 60, but I was so busy I didn’t even realize I had them, now it’s too late. I get more emails and letters for cemeteries and cremation than I do life insurance or sky-diving trips.

Apparently, you aren’t supposed to actually get old. If you will notice on most of the applications you fill out, the highest the age goes is about 65. Try those applications for auto insurance, they tend to stop early. I think when you get into your 80’s they put you into some type of special department that scans you more closely to see if you are an actual living human being that can see and hear a train approaching.

Try finding a new doctor at 80+ years. The paperwork is horrible, they give you 3 pages for your medications (large print) and 3 more pages to list your ailments, also large print.

If you don’t take any medications (I don’t) or have any life-threatening diseases or illnesses (none of those either) they get very suspicious of you. First, they want to know “why are you here?”. When you tell them you want to get a checkup on your general health, they want to know ‘what for’.? When you arrive they look at you with those same kind of looks you get when you want to open your safe deposit box….those “why do you want to do this” looks.

I think they aren’t used to seeing old/elderly/ancient people who are actually in pretty good shape after 80+ years still walking around and talking without drooling. It destroys their systems, how is this possible? We are supposed to be dead by now. What happened to this guy? What was his secret? What does he know that we need to know about? What is he not telling us?

You know I am just pulling your leg. I know what I was doing all of these many years. I do know that they have been eventful and exciting even with the down times and the valleys we all go through from one year to the next. The high points and the mountain tops make it all worthwhile. I wouldn’t change one thing that I’ve done throughout all these years.

Well, maybe one or two things….perhaps three.

See you next week….Peary Perry

MY MOTHER------

MY MOTHER----

My mother was 17 years old when I was born. By the time I was old enough to leave home, she was 39, so I never got much of a chance to really get to know and possibly appreciate who she was. We differed about many things over her lifetime. Politics for one. I tend to vote for the person I thought could do the best job. She voted for the candidate with the best hair. Therefore, Kennedy got her vote over Nixon, who she thought looked ‘sneaky’,

Our most argued issues were over how to raise children. Since I was an only child, she only had me to deal with for experience. We have 4 boys, which creates a different situation altogether. I don’t think she actually wanted to be a mother in the first place. Hence, I am an only child, or perhaps she was afraid she would get another one like me. Why knows? I never got a chance to find out.

I once asked her that if you had 1 child, how much love could you give them? She replied 100%. I then asked if you had 2 children and she replied 50% each. Since we have 4, she thought we were only capable of giving each 25%. I tried to explain that love multiplies, not divides and therefore we had 400% of love to give. She could never seem to grasp this concept.

But it’s true, isn’t it? As a parent, you are only as happy as your saddest child.

You cheer for their successes and weep for their heartaches your entire life.

My children are all grown men, some approaching social security age, but they are still my boys no matter how old they become. I worry for them when they are traveling or away from their homes. I am concerned when they are sick or having an operation.

It’s what you do. It comes with the territory and you never grow out of it.

I am not nor have I been a perfect father. I think I did the best that I could based upon the life experiences that I had to work with. There isn’t (to my knowledge) a book that someone wrote to tell me how to react to situations that arise at this point in my life. Someone once said that ‘today is the first day for the rest of your life’. They were right, on one hand you know your children are fully grown and you can’t fix or change anything about their personal situations at this time of their lives. For one thing, they don’t want you to do so.

But it still is an ingrained virtue of being a parent to desire only the best for them at the cost of every part of your being. What parent wouldn’t throw themselves in front of a speeding bus in order to shove their child out of the way?

I cannot take credit for any of my sons’ successes, nor will I accept guilt for their failures. They had theirs and I had mine.

I just need to go into this new year with the idea in mind that life is full of peaks and valleys that change from day to day.

I just must learn to be more patient and accept what I’m given. No matter what.

See you next week…Peary Perry

 

 

AND THEN I REALIZED ----

 

AND THEN I REALIZED, I WAS-----

 

Sitting in an easy chair with a hot cup of coffee watching my three great granddaughters open their Christmas presents, I began to realize…I was happy and having fun.

When was the last time you had fun? At some point in our lives our friends came to our doors to play for the last time, and we didn’t even think about it. What happened? When did we stop playing and having fun?

I know, we all got caught in that thing called life. Making a living, nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, eyes on the prize, all that other nonsense. And along the way, we got so consumed with ourselves we forgot to just stop and smell the roses. My dad used to tell me…’Don’t send me roses I can’t smell’. It has taken me a long time to figure out what he meant.

I remember being in Korea (after the war) and the people were so poor. No television, no telephone, no cars, no banks, no department stores but they were happy. They smiled and laughed and talked to each other and I thought to myself….how is this even possible? Don’t they even know what they are missing? I mean we have credit cards and lawn mowers ….I don’t think I ever saw a lawn much less one that needed to be mowed. I went to a Korean wedding once with food that was unbelievable and dishes I never asked what they were before I ate them. Several of them were fantastic until I found out what was in it. The event lasted all weekend and even though most of us couldn’t understand a word of the conversation, we had the time of our lives.

No, somewhere between then and now, which is a long, long time, I forgot to have fun and play. Like most of us, that are waiting until we can retire to enjoy life. Why shouldn’t we be enjoying every day that passes as if it were to be our last one?

Last night we sat down, popped some popcorn and watched a silly Christmas movie. My cheeks hurt from laughing this morning. When is the last time you switched off the doom news channels and watched something that made no sense but made you laugh? I bet it’s been a long time.

When’s last time you drug those old Monopoly games or Clue out of the closet and asked your neighbors over to drink coffee or wine and just play some games, no heavy talk, no television just communication with family or friends.

You were doing that very thing when your neighborhood pals knocked on your door to ask you to ride bikes or play ball with them. You talked, you laughed, you forgot about school or the yard you needed to mow, and you had fun. You were happy.

Don’t quit just because you’re old. Wear funny hats and clothes, no one cares any longer about the things you do when you’re old. They just think you’re going through your second childhood.

And that’s a very good thing, isn’t it?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year…see you next week Peary Perry