FORGIVENESS

The analogy of the glass being half-full analogy - it can work for a lot of things.

And as I keep getting older (gosh - I wonder if that happens to everyone else?), I can keep trying to be optimistic about aging. And don't mind sharing some of what I am learning.

1) People assume you know what you are talking about. Age may not bring wisdom, but it certainly brings experience. And if you speak with enough confidence, you can get away with a lot.

2) If you ask for the senior discount and can keep a straight face, you usually get it.

3) Life does get easier, I don't care what people say. Actions that just about 'killed' you as a teenager are brushed aside. The events that were catastrophic in your twenties you now recognize as just part of life. Battles and arguments which were worthy of you falling on your sword are, in retrospect, not even worth suffering a pin-prick.

But I am constantly amazed that people actually feel the need to hold onto old grievances.

Somehow if you were mad at your sister when you were 23, it seems to be a point of honor to continue to be mad at her now that you are 53.

If you were raised a Republican/Democrat/Presbyterian, by god, you are going to die a Republican/Democrat/Presbyterian.

And it doesn't matter if you completely agree with Mr. XYZ on almost everything because he STILL is a Socialist or Marxist or Liberal or something that you simply know is the ultimate in evil... because you were TAUGHT that Socialism or Marxism or being a Gay Pinko Liberal is... well, the ultimate in evil.

A favorite quote of mine (which has been attributed to everyone from Mark Twain to Winston Churchill to Francois Guisot to Winnie the Pooh):

"Any man who is not a liberal in his youth has no heart; any man who is not a conservative in his aged years has no brain."

Aren't we supposed to learn and develop and CHANGE as we grow up? Why do we cling to same philosophies out of some sense of stability - tradition - or the hidden concept that if we say it often and loud enough, it must be true.

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

A person of religion will proudly annouce that they went from being a staunch atheist to a born-again Christian -- so why aren't they pleased to have gone from one political party to the other? Ideas, ways, means - our conception of them do or SHOULD change.

(Stop right here, Hope, and take a couple of deep breaths - okay, where was I going to go with this?)

So, FORGIVENESS should become eaiser as you get older - as you can recognize the follies of youth

Oh yes, forgiveness.