“My name’s Alexander Hamilton and there’s a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait, just you wait…” lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Friends and strangers are mystified by why I would abandon semi-tropical South Carolina in the dead of winter to freeze for six months in frigid New Hampshire. Minus seventeen degrees this morning! The lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda (above) are a clue. I have a lot of life yet to live. I’m still curious about a million things.
I don’t want to offend anyone who has chosen a different path, because there are a lot of fine ways to live a life, but I don’t intend to sit in my home slowly fading into death for the next twenty years.
Of course, I have no control over random disease or tragedy. But I do have choices. I can choose not to turn on the television during the day. Instead, I choose to stir around a bit and continue to meet interesting people in interesting places.
Just think of all the books I have yet to read, of the places I can visit, of the cookies and pastries out there still to be tasted. There are national championships to be enjoyed, waterfalls to find, a grandson to mentor, churches to help, jokes to hear and retell, and thoughts to think.
My wife shares my enthusiasm for life, though her interests don’t always coincide with mine. She loves to sew and I love baseball. But our lives do intersect in a hundred other ways—adoring our daughters and sons-in-law, dinners with friends, Thanksgiving, the occasional trip, and, not least, supporting one another when one of us is ill.
Last night, in a suburb of Boston, daughter Julie and her husband Tom hosted a Murder Mystery party for my birthday weekend. Great experience. Wonderful food. In what world would I rather vegetate in front of a computer than be surrounded by a host of young, new friends?
What’s next? Who knows? I would not have predicted Murder Mysteries for parties, or the Internet, or blogs, or Facebook, or Harry Potter, or Downton Abbey, or being a campus minister at Dartmouth.
Next thing you know, I’ll have a grandson driving… Oh, that’s next month.
Life keeps happening, and I love it.
Where the Pavement Ends 
I agree with you wholeheartedly. BTW, remember Yvonne Jones who Fuzzy dated after he and I broke up? She also went to Lander. She is in Lexington Medical Center diagnosed with cancer, don’t know what kind. She cannot talk and cannot walk. Evidently this came on very suddenly. Please keep her in your prayers.
Sent from my iPhone
>
Sorry to hear about Yvonne. I’ll let Sally know too.
I would never have believed this of you when we first met. Stodgy old man comes to mind. I hope we’ll always like and keep up with each other.
Stodgy old man? Dang. That’s not a good impression. Well, you got over it.
Live on Marion!!! Enjoy the life gift you have been given and engage as many in life as possible….then share your discoveries to motivate others. Life is such a gift and so many keep it locked into a place or profession or both…
Some of our best friends abandoned Augusta several years ago to move to Dartmouth to be on the faculty of the Dartmouth medical school. Doctors Marshall and Lou Guill. You must look them up. They stay with us when they visit Augusta and we share a house at Wild Dunes.
My best
I will look them up.
Happy birthday Marion. It is always good to hear from you! We hope that you have many more great experiences while in the”north”. We miss you. RD and Sherry
Always glad to connect with you two, RD and Sherry.
Almost like a candy store…so many choices and limited time. The last time I can remember being bored was sitting on my front steps on a Sunday afternoon as a teenager with nothing (?) to do.
That’s funny, Earl. And true.
My thoughts exactly, ‘Marion !!!! My busy brain and my passions lead me on many interesting and fullfilling activities,!! I wrote this when my mother once asked why I was doing something “at my age”,,,
What’s age got to do with it
We cry from the heart
Ignoring the fact
We’re falling slowly apart!,
It matters not
What wrinkles you’ve seen
Because in my head
I’m only nineteen!!
Count not your age
In years from the past!,
It’s age in your heart
That always will last!!
Roselyn Glasgow Bryant
Thanks, Roselyn. That’s great.
This is your best blog yet. Keep on truckin!
Do we all feel 19? I do! My body begs to differ. I’m as excited about everyday I awake as I was at 19. Life is good and to be enjoyed
I don’t feel 19 but I don’t feel 69 either, whatever that means.
Marion,
Congratulations upon “failing” retirement, as did I! While at Clemson, we played in a tournament at Dartmouth…had pre-tourney banquet at the Boathouse (Home to the Rowing Team). Very nice place! You don’t have to feel 19 to be a blessing to the multitudes that you encourage! Thanks for your friendship!
Jim
Thanks, Jim. Hope you are well.
And were you the MM winner as you were for our New Yr’s Eve MM some years ago which Unc Gerald and Auntie Kari hosted?
I did not win.
I love your way of thinking: food, books, and new places to visit. Not necessarily in that order but the finer things in life … because they all sound fine to me. I’ll forego the cold weather though. Dave and I have spent the last two months in Florida for the warmth. My body doesn’t like the cold weather but we are heading home to beautiful Kentucky next week. Missing some grandkids and a new one coming soon.
Good to hear from you, Karen. Hope you and your family are well. Marion