Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom (And Whimsy)
Posted on July 31, 2024 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet
To the sea. To the sea
“Time, flowin’ like a river,
Time, beckoning me,
Who knows when we shall meet again,
If ever,
But time keeps flowin’ like a river,
To the sea.”
Time. The Alan Parsons Project
Listen.
Can you hear it? It started out as a trickle, barely discernible. Then it picked up speed. It’s not quite a torrent yet but the momentum is definitely there. The giant whooshing sound you’re hearing is the month of July making its hasty exit.
“Life runs on fast legs.”
I saw this line a few weeks ago. I want to assure my readers that I’m not deep enough to claim its authorship. Regular subscribers to my Week45 site know that I have written about the passage of time on numerous occasions in the past. I’m like that irritating 33 vinyl album that started skipping after one too many plays. I mean, is it possible to ever get tired of Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade of Pale?
I learned how to crawl in the winter of 1952. Fifty years later, I was crossing the finish line at the Boston Marathon. Time flies. My feet didn’t on that particular day. These days, I am relegated to walking and there are days when it feels more like crawling.
My first test run at school just days after my 5th birthday lasted until lunch time on the first day of school. A few weeks ago, I was teaching music to a pre-primary class at the age of 72. Tempus fugit.
“It’s a long way to Tipperary.” You musical historians would know that this famous piece of music was used as a marching song among soldiers in the First World War and is remembered as a song of that war. Originally it was a lament from an Irish worker in London missing his hometown. We learned this song from our parents at a very early age. Sixty-five years later, I’m still singing this song during my weekly visits to the nursing home.
My very first job at the age of 13 was cutting grass at St.Ninian’s Cemetery. I was paid the princely sum of $1.00 per hour and only got a break when there was a burial. Sixty years later, I’m still working (by choice) and have secured my burial plot in that same cemetery. At 13, mortality seemed a long way away. These days, not so much.
Oops. It would appear that Len is about to go maudlin on us.
Absolutely not.
It’s just a fact. Our row is being hoed.
I am just astonished that so much of life has happened in the blink of an eye. I am one of the lucky ones. I am rarely bored and am blessed with many friends and good health. Loneliness must be the worst of afflictions. There are many people my age who track their days like Crosby’s molasses being poured out of a carton.
The best we can do is savour the day in front of us.
“If you wake up and don’t want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You’ll see things in a different way.
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,
It’ll be here better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.”
Don’t Stop – Fleetwood Mac
Life runs on fast legs.
They’re just not my legs!
Have a great weekend.
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