I love my life, you will yours too one day

[Ray]

“Grow old with me! The best is yet to be.”

Robert Browning

Ray left early this morning on special assignment and left it up to me to locate a previous Daily and send it to you. Oh and I almost forgot, he wanted me to tell you to have a great weekend.

Ray’s Computer

~~~

Ray’s Daily first published on August 24, 2005

 

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you.

Agatha Christie

~~~

I think my second blooming came when I became unimportant. These days I lead nothing, chair nothing, and get to work in the trenches with some of the best people I ever met. Over my lifetime, either by luck, skill, or default I have been given a wide variety of responsibilities. A career in the computer industry, appointments to civic organization boards, a stint in the Health Planning movement, fulfilling various governmental appointments, working with UNICEF and Kiwanis have all provided me numerous opportunities to contribute.

As the years have gone by I was constantly surprised when I was offered the chance to serve as well as grateful for the chance to do something of value. The problem with these assignments is that they also carry with them responsibility, sometimes to lead, sometimes to create, and sometimes just to be there. The years shoot by as you meet one commitment after another without any time to just stop and look around. It was important that you do this and important that you do that, pretty soon you are almost convinced that it is you that is important.

Currently I celebrate the fact that all that is behind me. I have enough awards, plaques, and pictures with people who are truly important. These days I get to spend some time with people like a recent immigrant from Russia who wants to work in the arts as she did in Moscow, she has decided to clean houses, wash floors, and baby sit rather than take a job that kept her from following her heart, she is one of those special people that I would never have met in the past. She is but one, there are so many others and I love having the time to sit and get to know them. I also enjoy that I am now able to learn new things just to fulfill my curiosity, versus having to learn something because it was required in order to contribute during the next meeting or event.

I currently serve on no boards nor do I chair any committees, I don’t even serve on any. I just do some of the little things I couldn’t or wouldn’t do in the past. So when you see me taking tickets at a festival to benefit the performing arts, or at a class, or just hanging out with others, I will understand your envy, I just am sorry I waited so long to be unimportant.

~~~

Live your life and forget your age.

Norman Vincent Peale:

~~~

Sadie bumps into her friend Rachel at the mall.

"You're looking very tired today, Rachel. Did you have a late night?"

"Yes," replies Rachel, "but it was all very strange. While doing some gardening yesterday, I found a lamp, so I rubbed it and out popped a genie. He gave me a choice of two wishes."

"Wow, fantastic," says Sadie, "so what were the choices he gave you, Rachel?"

"He said he could either give me an excellent, sharp, 100% memory or else he could make my Harry the best lover in the world."

"So tell me already, Rachel, what did you choose?"

"I can't remember," replies Rachel.

~~~

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.

Robert Frost

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To Whom it May Concern:

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year old again.

I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with rocks. I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them. I want to play dodgeball at recess and paint with watercolors in art. I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible. Somewhere in our youth, we matured and learned too much. There are nuclear weapons, war, prejudice, and abused children. Lies, unhappy marriages, illness, pain, and death. A world where companies poison our water and our soil, and children kill.

What happened to the time when we thought that everyone would live forever, because we didn't grasp the concept of death? When the worst thing in the world was if someone took the jump rope from you or picked you last for kickball. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to return to the days when children played hide-n-seek outside instead of being glued to a television, when video games were as harmless as Pac-Man...instead of spine-ripping, blood-splattering mind numbers like Mortal Combat, and TV still had some shows on that weren't about sex, killing, and lies.

I remember being naive and thinking everyone was happy because I was. Afternoons were spent climbing trees and fences and riding my bike. I never worried about time, bills, or where I was going to find the money to fix my car. I used to wonder what I was going to do or be when I grew up, not worry about what I'll do if this doesn't work out. I want to live simple again.

I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones. I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.

So.... here's my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, 'cause. . .     "Tag! You're it."

~~~

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.

Virginia Woolf

~~~

Stay well, do good work, and have fun.

 

Ray Mitchell

Indianapolis, Indiana

Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.

 

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