Forever Young

                        May God bless and keep you always.

                        May your wishes all come true.

                        May you always do for others.

                        And let others do for you.

                        May you build a ladder to the stars.

                        And climb on every rung.

                        And may you stay...forever young

                                                Bob Dylan. 1974

 Thanksgiving Day. My favorite holiday in the USA. Families get together to celebrate  their good fortune, watch football games till their eyes lose focus and eat a huge meal so they go slowly into a food coma.  What's not to like? What transports me to Paradise though, is that I don't have to cook.  I just show up as a guest and grab a plate.  Life as it was meant to be!

                 

Young kids can entertain themselves with a bucket of marbles

One of my petty concerns for this year's gathering was how we might entertain our granddaughter, Harriet, for hours.  She was going to be the only small child in the group. How on earth could we keep her from being isolated and bored to death? She was nearly two decades younger than anyone else in the house. Would anyone be able to get down on the floor and actually PLAY?  Well, fear not grampa.  The older grandkids put away their cellphones, dug out a trusty box of  Jenga building blocks from the toy closet, spilled the contents all over the floor, and proceeded to create buildings, furniture, balance beams, imaginary machines, and wooden highways on the floor.  After nearly two hours of adventure packed nothingness, it was time to break up the fun so everyone could head home.  This was a great lesson in how to stay young.  I was sort of ashamed of myself for underestimating my grandchildren.  

                                            

                                    Harriet.  So easy to entertain.  Very strong batteries.

In 1974, more than half a century ago, Bob Dylan wrote and recorded the haunting song called Forever Young.  It burned a permanent hole in my psyche. The idea was preposterous.  Why would anyone  want to stay forever young? At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be older, richer, more powerful, more famous, and more experienced.  The last desire on my reptilian brain was to stay forever YOUNG. But as I age, I also have come to look at life with a bit more nuance.  I can hold two competing thoughts in my head at the same time.  It isnt just one thing or the other. 2 things can be true even if they seem opposite on the surface.  And I do want to give Bob Dylan some credit for understanding that you can be "young" in more ways than one.  Yes, your physical body is required to obey the laws of biology.  Sooner or later the physical you just has no option but to follow the calendar. 

                                                     

                                           The reality of the mirror...thanks to Barbara Gooch

But fear not.  There is another you that you can stay young long after your second knee replacement. Staying young in the parallel universe of life, allows a person to be as young as they choose.  

                              

                                                      

              My Italian Time Shifter.       

I clearly remember my "fountain of youth" moment in Italy.  There were 2 bicycles provided with the Airbnb apartment I had rented and one day I finally got up the courage to take one of them into the central old city to meet my friend Sergio for coffee.  At the very least, it would save me time to cover the 2 mile trek into the walled city.  It was just a practical decision.  And since the apartment was located on a quiet side street, it was the perfect training space to get used to being on a bicycle for the first time in half a century.  The second I started pedaling, I was hooked.  Being on 2 wheels is a completely different way of seeing the world.  The world is suddenly coming at you at four times the speed of a normal walk.  You have to think ahead and anticipate what is going on 30 yards in front of you.  There are people on foot who don't know you're behind them and who will just suddenly stop or change direction to look at something or greet others they recognize.  There are other cyclists coming at you or behind you who are in a hurry to get somewhere.  Little kids will just run in front of you because they are oblivious to the danger around them. And outside the protective cocoon of the walled city, there are cars, busses, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians on the same space you inhabit. But the dopamine rush that takes over when you hop on the bike takes over immediately.  The breeze in your face. The blur of the world around you.  The feeling of rolling on wheels is magical. The dangers dissolve. The years melt away. You've been reborn as a carefree kid again.  Wind in your face. Pedals to the metal. Step aside folks.  I'm coming through!

So, as I look out and survey the landscape of life, I now understand that I can be old and young at the same time.  Life isn't necessarily a zero sum game.  I don't have to BE young to FEEL young.  It's ok to take a nap in the afternoon when my body says that's right thing to do.  But it's also great to hop on my bike and ride out into the Tuscan countryside just for the fun of it.  And it's perfectly acceptable to get on the floor with a bucket of marbles with someone who really enjoys sorting them by size and color.  In fact, this is such an important feature of my life that I've put my best man on it.  He better not mess this up!

That's my story and I'm sticjin to it.

😎