WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO?

George Santana, a renown professor of philosophy at Harvard University (and to my knowledge no relation to Carlos), paced up and down lecturing to his captivated students. The professor walked deliberately to a window overlooking a garden of spring flowers, stood silently for a long time and finally said, "I very much fear that last sentence will never be completed. You see, I have an appointment with April." George Santana never lectured formally again.

The professor decided he didn't want to profess anymore. He was going to lead a different life. Good for him. How many different lives have you lead? How many different lives would you like to lead?

Answering these questions will require a life time-out to analyze what you have done and what you want to do. When in that taking-stock mood will you be mentally breaking out your best bottle of champagne in unbridled happiness over your life choices, or breaking your best bottle of champagne over your head in abject frustration?

If you were a lawyer, do you wish you had been a potter, a potter a lawyer? Maybe you lived in the city and wished you lived in the country or been a country bumpkin longing for the life of a city slicker. Do you wish you had been married, single, single living like married or married living like single? How would you have been in the religious life or as a Hell's Angel? Would you like to have lived the life of a senior vice president of a large corporation or a rescuer of Labrador Retrievers? Do you wish you had guided your life with the purpose of making more money, or do you wish you were more of a rose smeller? How about living as a musician on the road or a magician with a toad?

As they say, life is short, but it's wide. Different ways to live a life do not have to be mutually exclusive. If you choose the path that will lead you to being a vice president of a large corporation that doesn't mean you can't rescue Labs on the side (or for the more adventurous, be a vice president on the side). Consider retiring when you've had enough bossing people around, and then you can rescue dogs in your next life. How about being a lawyer until you're forty and then a potter until you're eighty, then on to the Hell's Angels.

You can lead one life with very little planning at all, just show up. To lead more than one life requires planning, and the sooner the better. What causes senior frustration moments is realizing you are just flat-out too old to hit the road as the circus human cannon ball that you now realize was your life's dream. While you may read about 95-year-old skydivers (Notice you only read about them once.), they are obviously the exception. The truth is there are ideal times in life to do certain things so you always must be thinking ahead of the game. You can give the road less traveled by those your age a try, but remember the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.



Lesson:There are many ways to live a life, pick out a half dozen or so and get going.