Before I was married I was the Worlds Greatest Pack Rat.

I'm not any more.

It wasn't until I was older that I noticed, that my Father rarely if ever talked about his youth or growing up in Ireland or the discrimination he faced when he first came to England. Trying to get him to talk about the past was like getting blood out of a stone. This used to annoy me.

But I now see that he just didn't want to look back and dwell in the past, I also see that in some ways I'm becoming a little more like him, I just am more talkative than he was. I get that from my Mum, who was never quiet.

I have a great friend who is in his eighties, he lives in a nice little house with a two car garage. I've known him for almost 30 years and he has never been able to get his car in the garage. Because it's full of magazines, mainly old copies of the National Geographic Magazine. Many a time I have told him that he needs to have a good sort out and get rid of them and every time he tells me that there is some very interesting articles in them. How he would ever find them is beyond me.

He is an old retired history teacher. I love the heck out of him. He was the Camp Director when I first came over to the USA to work at the camp, his wife was the camp nurse. She passed away some years back. He now spends his summers working as the Camp Chaplin.

He must have been about the age I am now when we first met and the strange thing is that he doesn't seem to have got old.

A few years back I was a Philmont and picked up this "How To Stay Young". How it has managed not to get thrown out is a miracle.

When I re-read it I thought of my dear friend and I hope that maybe one day someone will say that I never became old.

 

How To Stay Young.

Youth is not a time of life

It is a state of mind; it is a temper of the will,

A quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions,

A predominance of courage over timidity,

of the appetite for adventure over love of ease

 

Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years

People grow old only by deserting their ideals.

Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm

Wrinkles the soul.

Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair

These are the long, long years that bow the head

And turn the growing spirit back to dust.

 

Whether sixty or sixteen there is in every beings heart,

The love of wonder, the sweet amazement of the stars

And the star-like things and thoughts.

The unfailing childlike appetite of what next?

And the joy and the game of life.

 

You are as young as your faith.

As old as your doubt.

As young as your self-confidence.

As old as your fear.

As young as your hope

As old as your despair.

 

So long as your heart receives messages of

Beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur and power from the earth,

From man and from the infinite,

So long you are young.

 

When the wires are down and all the central place of your heart

Is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism,

Then you are grown old indeed

And may God have mercy on your soul.

 

Samuel Ullman

 

Eamonn.

 

Just remember:

 

Growing OLD is MANDATORY,

 

Growing UP ISN'T!!!

 

Have a great day