A Silent Watcher
Across the Great Divide
by Lionel Fisher
 George Carlin believes our life cycle should be reversed. "You should die and get it over with," claims the stand-up comedian.
You know, get the yucky stuff out of the way first.
"Then you live in an old-age home," Carlin continues his retrograde scenario. "You get kicked out when you're too young. You get a gold watch. You go to work. You work 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol and party. You get ready for high school. You go to grade school and become a kid. You play. You have no responsibility. You become a baby and go back into the womb. You spend your last nine months floating."
Sounds good to me, George.
How glorious to wake up each morning a bit younger instead of older, the physical aches and pains diminishing instead of increasing -- provided, of course, I got to keep my 70-year-old brain.
Would I do it all over again, knowing what I know now? In an L.A. second. (Lordy, what a trip that would be.)
Would I do it, though, if I had to live every moment exactly as before, experience the identical heartache, struggle, pain, loneliness, regret; reenact the same clueless, corrosive acts of selfishness, anger, arrogance, conceit and pride; repeat all my wrong choices? Thanks, but I think I'll pass.
Maturity in the Young Is Wisdom
Emotional maturity is welcome, of course, at any age. Yet it’s no great accomplishment, for maturity comes to everyone who lives long enough, simply part and parcel of our brief tenure, an eventual milestone in the fleeting journey. Trouble is, maturity comes for most of us near the end of our journeys. But maturity in the young -- in those not too old to enjoy it -- I call that wisdom.
Looking back across the great divide of time and life and space that separates the old and young -- you’re either one or the other; middle-age, you’ll discover, is a myth -- I find I've pivoted a full 180 degrees in virtually
everything I once believed, everything I held sacred, valuable, important and true, beginning with my concepts of God, religion, heaven, hell, love, joy, wholeness and compassion...
>>> Click to Continue Reading "A Silent Watcher"©
Copyright Lionel Fisher. This article was originally
published at our website, SoulfulLiving.com,
in January 2005, as part of Soulful Living's "Life Reflections" Issue.
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