Cobwebs of the Mind

All week I’ve been thinking about happiness, contentment, optimism and just plain life in general.  Living with an aging parent has opened up my mind to the fact of aging, really growing old and noticing how an older person thinks.  It’s not as though I hadn’t been aware of some of the obvious signs of aging, whether it was simply visiting with my mother or reading about other older persons.  But living day to day with an older person has made me think quite a lot about how one’s mind works.  I find myself thinking along similar lines with my mother when it comes to defining the rest of my life.

       What, thinking about a time line?  Yes, it is a scary idea.  I am thinking along the lines of what matters anymore because I’m going to die soon anyway. 

       Does that make you pull up short?  Me, thinking like that when I’ve always had this notion of longevity.  Can you imagine how I felt when I realized that I was doing it?  Once I realized that I was falling into the groove I began to examine the idea and although I pulled back once or twice because I was frankly terrified, I decided that this was NOT the place for me.  It’s one thing to look at downsizing and getting away from material things but it is quite another thing to get away with your personal growth and instead regress into memories and old ways.

       There is nothing more irritating to young people than to listen to what it was like in the good old days and there is nothing more narrowing than disapproving of every new invention that comes along.  I do understand that there is comfort in nostalgia but it is only healthy for an hour or so, per week, not per day.  Watching the news can be informative but not if you end up going down the same old paths each time you see another dirty rotten trick that the government has pulled on us.

       It’s time to dust out the cobwebs of the mind and learn something new and challenging.