ONE thing is certain, as time moves on, the plot will always thicken in
anyone’s life. You’ll see it starting so simply, then gravitating towards the more complex; which are often riddled with situations that twist and turn, as though to test you, while you continue in your life journey.
This is why it intrigues me no end when I read autobiographies of other notable people and learn too, about how some, whom we have known as mere ordinary people like us, have lived their lives despite their normal (and not) dose of trials and adversities.
Safe to say, at less than a week till sixty-seven, I have reached more than halfway of my lifetime. Surely, and employing simple logic, I wouldn’t reach its double, 134, enough to mimicly proclaim the Highlander’s cry, “there can only be one!”
Now, some of my friends hate it when we talk about such things, thinking that I have suddenly treaded on forbidden grounds. A big no-no, some say. Taboo, to even quote one. I sense they would rather opt to slide more comfortably on a wider range of safer topics which glorify the good old days and a much more happy bygone era.
In a recent meeting of school buddies, I silently gave more respect and honor to those who have bravely talked openly about their illnesses and their mortality, giving lesser attention to the smiling masks which only depicted good times. After all, wasn’t it Eminem who rapped about it quite succinctly, “If you could read my mind, you could see my pain.”
As I have witnessed with so many old souls whom I have known who have gone ahead (the most recent one being my dad) , it is this bare-teeth kind of honesty that I have come to favor and treat more fondly, in favor of the whines and moans constantly projected and spat by a few of the jaded ones.
I read somewhere that authenticity, even at any point in one’s life, but most importantly in the final years, often leaves one exposed. On one hand, might that perhaps be where the term, ‘old sod’ comes from? Unpopular and annoying, some old men might seem, but to be honest at that stage in their final lap, I wouldn’t like any other way. That might as well be their ticket. “tread ever lightly and be kind.”
For the rest, there is a secret behind all this. They might be gone when their time comes, but really, life goes on. For you, that is.
