Milestones Along The Way

Milestone: An event so monumental in ones life it literality transports one's self to a higher sense of reality in personal achievement. Well, there you have it. I too have reached another milestone on the highway of life. There have been many milestones that I have past along the way. When I was younger athletic achievement was practically all that mattered. Whether I ran the fastest marathon I could, biked over 200 miles in a single day, or swam 12 miles straight across the bay. All were personal milestones that I passed, along the way.
 
Now, I'm settling into older age where the moments I had in the sun are but distant memories of triumphant yesterdays. A slight lapse of forgetfulness now proves I have reached yet, another milestone. Only this time I am now what I thought I'd never become. You don't even realize it until you wake up one morning forget where you put your teeth from the night before and find you have been receiving Social Security checks for quite awhile.
 
Now that I have made it into that lofty inner sanctum of being a proud card carrying member of AARP life takes a whole different meaning. The choices I make now reflect a totally different departure of the decisions of my younger years. There are two distinct realms of reality when you reach a certain age. One reminds me of a cantankerous stubborn disenchanted old man. One who grumbles away their remaining years in isolation resolved that the world has passed them by. The other route we can take embraces the coming years filled with glorious optimism. Witty, with years of past experiences chafing at the bit to share the knowledge of a lifetime of past trials and tribulations, knowing full well of the mistakes made, don't repeat.
 
It is the other path I have chosen to travel for the years I have left. Mistakes made along the way only enhance a lifetime of wisdom. To depart this world without sharing that knowledge gained is so tragic. Like old Professor Franklin once said "Everyone, along life's highway at some point in their life has something so important to say that it just might change the course of humanity for the greater good. All it takes is for the rest of us is to read, listen, and open our eyes to see." Good old Professor Franklin. Ah, yes the glorious days of those collegiate years. So long ago, but rarely forgotten.
 
Through-out the years life has been good. Blessed with health I have made it sort of speaking to that paternal brotherhood of senior citizenry where the golf cart reality beckons. What is so disheartening is I am but a few who are so blessed in this troubled world today. A world filled with a soberness not seen since the 1930's. Millions today can only dream of awakening to a world brimming with joy not sorrow. The pestilence of man's inhumanity to man clings to actions of the powers that be.
 
Through-out the years I have witnessed horrific conditions where squalor and filth are some of mans bedfellows. Where there is no hope of better days to come is the reality of so many. To see it first hand gives new meaning to the purpose of all mankind. To see the world thru other eyes and to walk in another persons shoes brings to light the consequential essence of what mankind really must understand. It is to that end, for that purpose we all should share like old Professor Franklin, when shared experience is a world of knowledge and a better world because of it.