One Year Older Means ‘Aging.’

**With aging, you are just getting started not finished.** Photo Courtesy of seniorplanet.org

There is one reality people live in denial with. And that is the aspect of aging. Seems when one hears the world old, they see the grim of life. They imagine disappearing into obscurity because of retirement maybe or lack of physical fitness. But it is one reality that we must contend with and one we must be ready to accept.

But depending on how we look at the coin, the old years may mean our tipping points in this life. The fact has always been that a majority of people look at the coin in two ways. It is either the head or tail and nothing else. Only a very few people look at it from the edge.

The same applies to how people look at the aspect of aging. To most people, aging is a time when they sit and wait for their death as they enjoy their savings and years of labor. Very little people look at it as a time to pursue other aspects of this life that they find enriching and fulfilling to them.

It is interesting that an old man took the MacDonald’s idea and developed it into a concept that unmasked the potential of franchise. At a time where the peers of Mr. Ray Clark in their fifties were busy preparing to retire, he was looking at starting to pursue his interests in life. A salesman by profession, he in his heart was destined to be a salesman for life

To most people, they look at him as a conspirator who was only interested with taking the MacDonald’s idea from two brothers who had come up with the whole thing. But we must also appreciate the fact that this was a man who had the grit, persistence and a broader vision than the two brothers who simply wanted to play in the local league.

The fact that these two brothers wanted to hold so hard to an idea in which they were not ready to relieve themselves and see it grow to what it is today is utterly weird. The founders, who were two blood brothers, were very rigid to even allow room for innovation. Yet innovation was the thin line to differentiate the chain from the rest of the players in the same market.

Then an old man came along, one man to whom aging meant getting started in life and took the whole idea and develops it into a very huge success. When he wanted to pull the two brothers into the same bandwagon, the two young guys were not ready to play it in the same league and if they were pulling him backwards, he had let them go.

Why I have dug deep into the MacDonald’s story is because it is the perfect example of what old age can mean to different people. And this is a reminder that comes to all of us every time we are celebrating a birthday because it is a reminder that we are getting older with each passing day.

The most interesting thing about getting older is that it happens gradually. You become old one day at a time. No one wakes up in the morning and finds themselves at 60 or at 80 years of age. We age one day at a time and that is one thing that we should appreciate every single moment.

So last week I celebrated a birthday, and it reminded me that I am getting old. Old to mean that soon I may cross the bridge from the youthful age bracket to middle one and before time erupts I find myself in the ripe old age, then, just like that the torch of my ‘glorious’ life dims.

Should it become so predictable as such, I am to blame. But I choose to look at it as a moment I am just getting started in life. Whether I would be in my fifties and not achieved my goals, I would still be starting then as long as I change the ending.

I remember watching an old man being interviewed and he was asked one question which caught my attention. The interviewer asked this man, ‘I see you are an old man doing wonderful things out there, but when are you planning to slow down?’

I remember the old man saying that he was not thinking about slowing down any time soon. To him, he was to work till he wouldn’t work anymore. To him, celebrating a birthday was a reminder that the time was getting shorter towards achieving his goals in life and especially the old age goals that he had set long before he got old.

And to me, last week was a reminder that I needed to understand the urgency of time. That there was no much time left. I have goals that need to be achieved. I have dreams that need to be chased even faster. I have aspirations to struggle and achieve.

But then another thing crops up to remind me that I need to learn much more about patience and perseverance. In other words, the time is getting shorter and yet much more needs to be achieved and that means that I will need patience not to take shortcuts which simply means that amidst all that I need to persevere still.

So by adding one more year into my basket of harvest for years, I will need to understand that for sure I am aging one day at a time. And that I should not take it to mean that I should slow down in life, rather it calls that I should prepare myself to increase my pace even the more.

To all July and as well as Covid babies, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

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