Been thinking about this getting old stuff. For starters, my definition of "old" is ten years older than me. Right now, that means you're old when you hit 83. But of course, you really aren't old then because "old" is 93.

There's a lot of great things about getting old. I've just been trying to put some thoughts down on paper. I've heard getting old described as living a life of diminished expectations. Every time I'd go home to visit my parents when they were alive, they'd recount the things they could no longer do. But they were all physical. They may have lived lives of diminished physical expectations, but they found many new things that gave them pleasure. And despite what they had lost, they were thankful for what they still had. Or more accurately, BECAUSE of what they had lost, they were thankful for what they still had. Some people mourn for all they've lost. I give thanks for what remains. I hope I can always have that attitude, as my parents did.

These days I look at all the things I have accumulated in my life. They have given me pleasure in their day and I am thankful for that. But now they just weigh me down. It's hard to live free-wheeling with eight truckloads of possessions holding you down. I used to kid my oldest son saying that he should have a bumper sticker on his car that said "Happiness Is My Next Purchase." I think we've all been guilty of that. I'm rapidly morphing from an Accumulator to a Dispenser. Life is like panning for gold. You can't see the nuggets at first for all the dirt and sand. You've got to swish it around and wash off all the dirt that is of no value to find the littlest grains of gold.

The less you have, the faster you can move. Most of us have far more stuff than we need, or will ever use. At least I do.

It gives me the shedders.

Jerry