To Ease the Passing of Time

Seventy years! That’s a heck of a long time!

What have I learned during all those years?

Well, by studying, traveling and reading, I have acquired a lot of knowledge about a lot of things like history, geography, the different ways different people live in different parts of the world now and before; I have also learned that the universe is a lot bigger and complex than I thought it was when I was younger.

That is all very good. It makes me a much more knowledgeable person. But does it make me any wiser?

There are only a few things that I have learned that have significantly changed my perspective on the world and the people who live in it.

I have learned over the years that some people can be a lot crueler than I could have ever imagined people could be; I have also learned that a lot of people can be a lot more stupid and gullible than I could have ever imagined.

There are trillions and trillions of stars in the universe. A lot of them are born and a lot of them die every day. We are like those stars.

I know all that. I also know that the people for whom we are important are very few. Out of the seven or so billions of individuals on this planet, there are perhaps five or six, maybe ten if we are lucky, who really care about us.

This should make me sad and depressed, but no. The older I get, the more sensitive I become to a lot of things: small acts of kindness, the very rare but so very precious signs of affection that I get, music, poetry, songs, nature, and, of course, love, but love in a more quiet and gentle way than when I was younger.

There is so much beauty in this world and in some of the people who live in it. When you are seventy and retired, you have more time to watch, listen and feel.

This is something that I have not learned the same way I have learned other things. It came gradually, sometimes after long periods of anxiety and doubts, or after going through, and sometimes right in the middle of periods of pain and misery.

I can understand why Beethoven wrote his 9^th Symphony, the one called “Ode to Joy’”, when he was deaf. Sometimes, there is joy that comes from within us that has nothing to do with the reality of the world around us.