Sunday, October 21, 2018

"Life is a Gift but it has Diminishing Returns"

The title is a quote from Eric Idle.  He is the Monty Python Merry Prankster.  I have never seen Monty Python or heard of Mr. Idle, but his  quote in, of all things, the AARP Bulletin, has resonated with me for many days.




Confession time.  Seldom in the past have I read this publication.  It would arrive and it seemed I
was always too busy to read it.  Hence, I would set it on the stack of other publications until I would
then throw them away after a while - never read!

Well, I'm here to tell you that this issue was all about voting and I read it from cover to cover.  It would not be possible to quote off the top of my head from any of the other articles, but this one
has made me chuckle and ruminate on another comment made by the author.

A paragraph began "It's not about you anymore.  You don't matter.  And that takes the pressure off of having to be successful or earn a lot of money."  Wowza, that stopped me in my tracks.  Never have I thought of this time in my life from that angle.  He goes on to say, "You're at the edge of your life at every moment. And as you get older, it's become more imperative to appreciate that."

Amen and hallelujah.  Someone put into words the feelings that have been floating around in my head for the last year and a half.

Guess it is time to kick up our heels and to do whatever we want or go wherever we want because we are at some point on the precipice of extinction.  A very liberating thought, don't you think?

5 comments:

Tancho said...

A couple of days ago I was listening to the TV in the background, you know everyone has to have some kind of noise being generated in order to accept that we are sill alive and breathing, well anyway what I heard was that we should stop and think exactly what would make us happy and what would we like to accomplish on our bucket list. I have thought about that without much thought, hell, we have plenty of time to worry about that but then, the person said, how long do you have?

We need to stop and accept that we don't have much time, a year? Maybe if we are lucky 5 years before either worse mobility or the sight or hearing goes out so you won't be able to enjoy that something you have been thinking about for years.

It's time to as they say, get of the pot and do something. As I was laying in bed the other night I couldn't think of a thing because I have done a lot in my life, for which I am grateful for, but there has to be something, the one last thing to do before you really can say you have done it all.

We really need to think about it, because the sand in the hourglass is rapidly disappearing....

picklesandroses.blogspot.com said...

So true and I’m checking them off one by one.

Babs said...

Tancho, I no longer have any burning desires to travel to far away places nor do I feel that I have left things undone! I think I'm in the Season of Contentment, which took a heck of a long time to get to..

I would like to spend a month at the beach in January, but that is easy and doable. It is nice to feel content and complete, doesn't it?

Contessa said...

Yes I have heard Father Time knocking at my door. Hence we are ramping up our travels both here, in Mexico and in Europe. I hope that one day I too will be able to say that I am in the Season of Contentment.

Babs said...

Well Contessa, enjoy your travels! It is good to be "in contentment"! I can hardly even think of anything I want to "buy" anymore......goodness gracious.