In this new and modern day and age, many of us who are trying to have some fun coasting through our so-called ‘Golden Years’ quite often realize, especially when playing with our grandchildren, that we may not always be quite as quick and witty as we used to be. But before sending us off into the ‘senior sunset’, please remember and be aware that after surviving way over a half a century, much of that bringing up our feisty next generations, we have managed to gain quite a bit of experience along the way, and just may be able to still come up with a few neat tricks of our own.
After all, along the way we have managed to achieve quite a few good accomplishments and milestones, some great, a few spectacular, most of which we will never forget or regret. Sure we may have screwed up on a few occasions, but we always just dug in a little harder and relished the fact that everyone learns by experience, as well as usually getting by with just a little help from your friends, your teacher, your boss, your coach and, of course, your parents. Most of us have always loved telling a good joke and playing a good trick, but sometimes it is hard keeping up with some of today’s off-the-wall humour, and we were taught that pranks should mostly be in good fun. I hope, as seniors, that we will all get lots of chances to sit around with family and friends and tell some of the neat and often naughty stories about our youth, and while some of our siblings may find these tales quite boring, I am sure that most of them wouldn’t dare try to perform some of them today. We will readily admit that our grandchildren may be able to whip us at computer games, math, running, riding bikes and a few other things, but why don’t you sit down and try us at a good old traditional game of monopoly, checkers, scrabble, crokinole and patience, with the winner getting the first choice of ice cream or cookies. Here’s just a little story expressing the point that some old critters are still blessed with some of the old tricks, as well as a great sense of humour.
An old German Sheppard was out in the field one afternoon and decided that he would try chasing a few of those pesky rabbits, but pretty soon realized that he was worn out and lost. Wandering about, he noticed a mountain lion heading rapidly in his direction with the likely intention of having lunch. The old Sheppard thought, ‘Oh-Oh, I’m in real deep trouble now’, then noticing some bones on the ground close by, he quickly settled down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the big mountain lion is about to leap, the wily old German Sheppard exclaimed loudly, “Boy, that was one delicious mountain lion....I wonder if there are any more around here?” Hearing this, the young mountain lion halted his attack in mid-strike, and with a look of terror on his face slunk off into the woods uttering ‘Whew’, that was close...that old German Sheppard nearly had me for lunch.”
Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been intently watching the whole scene from a nearby tree figured he could put this knowledge to good use and trade it in for some life time protection from that mountain lion. Scurrying through the woods, the sneaky little squirrel soon caught up with the mountain lion, spilled the beans and struck up a deal with the mountain lion, which was furious at being made of fool of by an old dog. “Here squirrel, hop on my back and we’ll see what is going to happen to that conniving canine.”
Back out in the woods the old German Sheppard spies that mountain lion coming back at high speed with the squirrel on his back and thinks, ‘What am I going to do now?’ But too tired and old to run, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending that he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they got close enough to pounce, the dog uttered out loud....’Where’s that squirrel?....I sent him off an hour ago to bring me back another juicy mountain lion..’
The moral of this story: Don’t mess with the old dogs; age and skill will always overcome youth and treachery, and B.S.; and brilliance only comes with many years of age and experience..
Some good thoughts for a great day.
*We gain true love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. Never look down on someone unless you are helping them up.
*If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?
*One of the most profoundly human things we can do is to talk to someone instead of about them. Let’s promote what we love instead of bashing what we hate.
Thanks to everyone for hosting another very successful Ponoka Stampede, with accolades to the Stampede Association, the volunteers, the sponsors, the competitors, the fans and the community for once again making it one of the greatest and longstanding rodeo events in the world. Now let’s get on with the rest of the summer, and have a hot and happy great week, all of you..