I submit to you that, in reality, 75 years is probably a bit of an overestimate, but I'll stick to that number for now. You see, while we get credit for those first few years, let's be honest... that's like an introductory offer. For the first, say... 3 years of life, we're pretty much just eating, shitting and growing. We are learning that the stove is hot and that dirt tastes like, well, dirt. It's only after that 4th birthday that we really start getting into some fun times. The world is our playground... the only thing is, our world is only about the size of a playground and it consists of pretty much just our house and our yard. But... nevertheless, we still get credit for it. Once we start eating that birthday cake, we start having more fun, and if we do it right, we can maintain that fun for the next 75 years until our birthday cake looks like a small house fire. If and only if, we've half-assed taken care of ourselves, that is.
Now, I'm in no way trying to bring you down, on the contrary, actually. My point with telling you this is, to get you to stop wasting your time, wishing for the time that you can do, whatever it is that you want to do. The time is NOW. Go hike that trail, take that flight to Zimbabwe, run that marathon, or... for the purposes of my (hopefully fast growing number of) readers...BUY THAT DAMN MOTORCYCLE! I have a very good friend that wants a motorcycle. Every time I see him, I tell him, go get a bike... financing is available and new models are on the showroom floor, waiting to be bought, right now as we speak. But it's always the same thing with him... "not yet, I'm trying to pay off bills." That's great... totally understandable, more or less. Now, I'll be honest with you... you probably don't need to look to me for financial advice.... but... for motorcycle advice and for advice on happy living, I can probably give you some gems.
Let's get back to our timeline, shall we? So, from age 5 to 18, we are pretty much living the school life- learning how to interact with people, learning to fight, learning to love, learning to drive and of course, learning how to read, write and arithmetize. Those can be awkward times- dealing with pimples, bad hair styles and that weird thing that our voice does when we talk to girls. But, once we wrap that up, we are starting to really settle in to the good times. Some go to college, others go to work, but we all get to start doing what we want to do. By the time we graduate high school, we are left with, around 60 good years left. Unfortunately, for most of us, for the next few years, despite our best efforts, we are pretty much still struggling financially. We are dating, going to college or working to get past that "new guy" status in our job. Maybe we've found that special someone and we are making big plans for our future with them. Either way, while we are still trying to get our shit together, our timeline is slowly shrinking.
Every person's life takes a different course, but the reality is this- once we get through college, or internships, or training and we get settled in to that full time, grown -up, job that we have and after we get our family life situated, we are already closing the door on our 20's and our "good years" are already down to around 50 or so left. You see, when we are in our first few "good years", we keep saying, "when I grow up." When we are grown up, but still thinking about proms and that history test that we forgot to study for, we are saying, "when I graduate." And, of course, when we are grown up, graduated and we are living day-to-day, as adults, old enough to drink some hooch and pay our own light bills, we start saying, "when I can (insert whatever excuse you are telling yourself, here)."
I submit to you this- NOW is WHEN and WHEN is NOW. Do it before you can't. I was lucky enough to find a woman that, wholeheartedly, supports me and my motorcycle addiction. Sure, right at first, she wasn't exactly excited about it... I mean, after all, I was a father of two very young sons and I was already working in a pretty dangerous job. But, after we talked about it, she understood and slowly started warming up to the reality that she was married to a man who was, quite possibly, born with a V-twin powered heart. It's been nearly 20 years now that I've been back on two wheels and she's seen me go through about a dozen motorcycles. She even still has enough patience with me to let me keep a few and even supported me teaching my sons how to ride, which, for the protective momma bear that she is, was quite surprising!
Look folks, we aren't promised tomorrow. I've lost enough people in my life and I've seen death's grisly blank stare and bony fingers randomly take lives at every conceivable age and condition. Trust me... we aren't promised a single moment past this very one that we are in right now. Plan for tomorrow... plan for all the tomorrows. Hell, by all means, start planning for that 102nd birthday party... but by all the grace that may find you...LIVE for TODAY. Play with your kids, take your wife to that ridiculously overpriced restaurant and by all means... buy the motorcycle and go explore our world on it... do these things now, before you completely run out of those precious few "good years" you have left.
May peace be with you always, even when the days aren't so good.
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