Some thoughts on the optimism of an older person....

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Some Thoughts on the Optimism
 of an  Older Person....
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by Carl Baydala

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Friends, I have to tell you that life is not getting any easier for me. I am getting older and I can feel it now. Life has been pretty good to me though, generally speaking, that is. I am still healthy and I can still do a good day's work at my job if required to do so. The basics are still intact and as you can see my mind still works just fine. However;

With old age comes the effect of time. Time, and its consequences, is just one of those incessant things that we cannot control. Time is that thing that keeps reminding us that one day everything must end. We do not know how it is going to end, but life gives us enough clues that it will in fact end one day. I am sure that most of you have friends who have died suddenly or became the victim of some horrible disease and the like. They died, but you continue to live. You are lucky that your number has not come up yet and you continue to enjoy what life doles out to you.  And, I am the same kind of  person as all of you out there. I am alive and I was blessed or allowed to live yet another day and to enjoy all that life has to offer.

Do  I have any complaints about my life so far?  Well, actually I do. I have made the same kinds of mistakes that many others have made along the way in this business of life. The biggest mistake that I made I suppose was not really appreciating that you cannot always get what you want. That is a huge life lesson friends so don't ever think otherwise. The problem of course is that we are all human and we don't always understand these kinds of things in the ways that we should. But, life has a way of teaching us hard and valuable lessons as I am sure most of you have discovered by now. Life gives us this lesson and we all deal with it in our ways of course. Depending on our personalities, this lesson is hard fought or accepted, or it is even rejected, depending on how strong our personalities and ambitions are.

But, we all get older and that is the point friends. We get closer to death every living day in our lives. We relish our victories and we remember them well. That is the stuff of memories of course. But, then there are the failures, or our failed dreams; things we wanted but never acquired. So, this becomes one of the central issues for the aged friends. That's right, life and old age makes philosophers out of all of us. That is one of the benefits of life and advanced years, if not the main benefit. Living gives you memories and experience. This is the kind of stuff that a philosopher needs to formulate his ideas with.

Some people are  fortunate and have lived very good lives indeed. We are not against these people and what they have accomplished. Of course not. That would be a negative sentiment and we get absolutely nowhere by condemning or criticizing these people. I am just suggesting to you friends, that most people had goals when they were young, and that is what made life valuable and meaningful for them; life was worth living in the context of pursuing individual goals. And, some of us achieved our youthful goals, while others did not.

All that I am saying friends is that old age is the time for reflection and an opportunity to get that philosophy together and to make an attempt to  figure the whole thing out within the context of your own personal experiences. If you are a bit of an outsider like myself, a non-main streamer if you will,  then you know that you have some extra opportunities to put a philosophy together. If you are like me in fact, then you did not experience anything approaching a normal life. So, we certainly have to take these kinds of things into account when we are tallying everything up and trying to make sense of it all. Now, fortunately for me of course,  I like thinking about stuff like this and I do in fact accept the challenge of making an account of myself at this stage in my life.

Does everybody worry about these kinds of things and feel compelled to say something about it; about their life histories, that is?  I mean, is it some kind of a responsibility, for example, to provide some kind of meaningful account of one's life and sell it to everybody else?  Well, actually the answer is no, and the reason is that not too many people would actually care about how you made out or what your individual problems were - and are.  They are too busy with their own problems or with their successes. That is kind of the reality of the situation friends. Life is an individual thing. If you are a living and breathing personality then you already know that. Everybody is just trying to get to the end of the line in one piece and they hope and pray that no unforeseen calamity will fall upon them and make their lives more miserable than it might be right now. If they are like me and begin to construct these elaborate philosophies for others to peruse then they will have to provide even more details of the things that have influenced them, especially if these are negative things of course. But, the point is dear friends, that not too many people will really be interested, except a handful of loved ones, you know, the people that really count anyway.  

Pretty dreary prose here tonight eh friends?  Actually, it was not meant to be at all. I am just getting older now and I know it; time for reflection and aging politics if you will.   And, don't forget: all of the people that I am interested in are getting older as well. My hope is that they will find time to reflect when that time arrives in their lives - and it will if they are normal thinking human beings like myself. I am an optimist friends and I believe in understanding. I am counting on my friends to grow older and when they do, to finally figure out just what kind of a person I am and what I wanted out of life. I don't think that is too much to ask for actually, and in fact, I don't really have to ask for it because I know that it is going to happen anyway. Old age will deliver the goods for me, and that is when I will be vindicated for everything that I have done and ever wanted, within reason of course. I will be vindicated via the process of understanding and acceptance. I am counting on philosophy to do the job that it was intended to do, and that is to bring understanding to all of those who never bothered or take time do such things.  I will win my consolation prize even if I am not here to accept it. Thanks for reading and have a great day friends.


Here is a great song friends. It is called ' Dark Horse ' by Amanda Marshall.  I am a courier you know and I listen to this kind of music all day long while driving about. I heard this Dark Horse song again last week and I thought to myself that I would like to place this song on my blog somehow.  It is about optimism is it not, and beating the odds or betting on a long shot or a ' dark horse ' in a horse race if you will.  That is my interpretation at any rate.  Well, the first thing I did was to incorporate this song into one of my Harness Racing entries. You can see that particular entry  right here  if you like. I thought it would be a nice touch for my friends who are visiting that site in the hope of getting  some of my tips on my harness racing picks.  Well, I like this song quite a bit and I hope that you guys do too.


Dark Horse - Amanda Marshall