When Approaching Old Age

The other day I was reading an article, I think it was on ThirdAge.com, about how to age gracefully and happily. It made several points, but the one that struck me was about being foregiving. It quoted the old saw that holding a grudge is like drinking a glass of poison and hoping the other guy will die.

I thought that over and decided that I really no longer hold any grudges. I do remember a few I held for quite a while, but I have long since decided that they were silly. I guess that is sort of the equivalent of forgiving. There was the company clerk in the Army that fixed the books so that he got to return home a month before I did – even though we should have gone home at the same time. But he was just getting even. I had caught him stealing a pair of gloves from the supply room. Are you listening, Lester? I forgive you.

That high school English teacher who gave me a “C” and kept me off the honor roll my last semester makes the list. Really, it was my mother that stayed angry about that. If the teacher hadn’t got mad at me, I would have been on the honor roll every semester in high school. I heard she wept when she found out what she had done. Heck, all I did was stand up and walk out of her class without permission. Did any of this change the course of my life? Naw!

Speaking of grades – There were two of us in our freshman year of college with the same first and last names. His middle initial was G and mine was S. At the end of the first semester, he got my grades and I got his. I didn’t realize what happened , but I appealed those I was given and got them corrected. They let him keep mine, but I never knew if he appreciated that my hard work saved his butt. Just a memory, not a grudge.

I think the article was right. You will have a happier time as you age if you forgive the insults and dislikes of your life and concentrate on the good people and events that have enriched your travels through life.