Yesterday Jim asked me: ‘Do you miss school?’ Without hesitation I replied, ‘No!’
…This is the 14th September that I haven’t returned to school for the start of a new school year…
I told Jim: ‘It seems like a different life, I was a different person’… We reflected on the jobs we used to do and agreed we couldn’t go back to them.
Many fellow senior citizens tell me what they can’t do…. to do with their strength, speed stamina, memory…. last any length of time without going to the toilet… Some feel that society has written them off; some write themselves off.
Yesterday was the Dutch Grand Prix. Pit stops for changing tyres are a vital part of race strategy…
When I retired from teaching I didn’t retire from life. Sometimes, however, I need a pit stop to re-tyre – the road conditions are different or my old tyres have worn out…
With children we rejoice in and focus on what they can do… the first steps, the first words, learning new facts, gaining new skills, enjoying new experiences. For them perhaps it’s putting on their first set of tyres to equip them for their first circuits…
Yesterday I read of Gordon Short (no relation!), a 100 year old bowls fan from Devon. Gordon decided that he would play 100 ends of bowls – 5 in each of 20 local clubs. Despite breaking his hip he completed his challenge, raising over £6,000 for his local air ambulance.
Musing… I still have further laps to complete. I shall certainly not park up in some geriatric car park or museum – or rust away in some scrapyard for MOT failures.
There aren’t many grand-prix parables in my Bible. However I continue to trust my God-mechanic to be there for a pit-stop and re-tyring… my God-driver to give me the right speed and direction negotiating the next lap, and my God-fuel to give me power to get round it.
malcolmsmusings.org 