Trying to Stay Wise at 75

flickr.com/photos/arichards-gallery/3487306738/

By Ernie McCray

Just turned 75.
As I think about being a year older,
my first thought is
I’m so glad to be alive.
No jive.
On my list of priorities,
breathing is most high,
as I want to take all that I’ve seen,
over the years, with these old eyes,
all the bits and pieces of life
that are memorialized
and analyzed
and crystallized into my being’s archives
and use these experiences
in a constant quest
to stay wise –
because I dare to surmise
that there is no point in being 75
if you’re not wise.
At least wise enough
to know that Fox News
is to news as Polka is to down-home-funky-blues.
Wise enough to know that “terrorism”
ain’t just something that happened the other day
in the dear old US of A,
that it was a way of life in an earlier day
called the “Good Old Days”
and droning children’s lives away, today,
I must say,
is not the pathway
to creating better days
down the road someday.
Wise enough to know
that there often is truth in “We reap what we sow.”
Wise enough to believe
that it’s the epitome of hypocrisy
when champagne is broken to launch new ships
and wine glasses are clinked
and toasts sipped
through celebratory lips,
indeed,
while someone gets cited for possessing
or toking a few grains of weed.
We need a little consistency.
Wise enough to know that, in a world of plenty,
there should be no such thing
as hunger
or a homeless child,
that political posturing
like blustering
and filibustering has no place
in a world that’s gone mad and wild,
in desperate need of something like a “timeout” for a while.
Wise enough to know,
after 75 years of being on the scene,
that I can’t just complain about what I’m seeing,
that I have to be counted
and visibly seen
actively trying to change the scenery,
and in order to do so
I have to be wise enough to know
that I’ve got to keep myself strong
and flexible
and able,
understanding that if I don’t move it
I will lose it.
So I have to walk a few miles
a day,
as I age,
and/or bust a move
to a song
with a funky groove
because there’s nothing like dancing
to spark a nice mood
for taking on all that has to be pursued.

I’m digging the age of 75,
grateful that I’m still able
to get out and exercise
and realize
more and more
that life is to be engaged
with a sense of play,
in a spirit of fun,
having come
to know
that there is no better way
to get the job, of making the world better, done.

Next trick.
Making it to 76.

______

Here’s Ernie McCray when he turned 74 !