“The world does not need tourists who ride by in a bus clucking their tongues. The world as it is needs those who will love it enough to change it, with what they have, where they are.” Robert Fulghum
First of two parts, note 27 & 187: (Note 27) I wrote these two parts a long time ago. The first part was with my depressed view of aging and the second more hopeful and inspiring (with the help of AI).
I used to read my daughter the book The Wheels on the Bus, with its repetitive chorus: “The wheels on the bus go round and round, all day long.” In many ways, this feels like a metaphor for life as we get older. We find ourselves caught in routines, repeating the same habits, nurturing the same relationships, and becoming fixed in our beliefs, attitudes, and feelings. Like the bus, we go round and round, staying in the safety of a familiar lifestyle.
As we age, we may feel satisfied with this comfort, but there’s often an underlying longing for the excitement of change and the thrill of personal growth deeper connections, more romance. We remember the carefree days of our youth, when adventure seemed limitless. Now, we hesitate to push our bodies or minds too far, whether in recreation or sports, and we shy away from quick-witted, fast-paced conversations. There’s a fear that we might have nothing new to add, that a memory might fail us, or that we simply can’t keep up with the complexities of social interaction.
But like every bus ride, the journey doesn’t last forever. The bus has to stop at some point, reaching its final destination—or a junkyard. We continue our routines, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, until one day, we can no longer keep the wheels turning.
EXERCISE:
Is your bus moving? Is it taking you to where you really want to go? Are your stops really serving you at this point in your life? Or, have you decided that you have arrived at your destination?
Remember, don’t act your age!