Keeping perspective

[George Jung]

Reading the 'offerings' of late, the contrast with this piece from the late Erma Bombeck was arresting.

For your consideration:

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's".. More "I'm sorrys" ...

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.


© Erma Bombeck

[Durnik]

Considered well.. I hope.. ;-)

"..seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back."

Thank you

BTW, your sig always reminds me of "the rules of life", guessing you know the ones.. tho I found this humorous set while looking for a listing of the others.. ;-)

The 'new' Erma would have liked #6..

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

sounds like something Gilda Radner would have said.. ;-)


enjoy
bobby

[PeterSibley]

Thanks George.

[Canoeyawl]

Thanks for that,
I have done many of those things... Life is sweet, but short.

My grandfather was a world war 1 soldier stationed in France.
He told me stories for an hour or more one Sunday a month until I was a teenager. As I look back, they were always human interest stories with never really much mention of violence or evil. (There was that big tattered scrapbook though. It had a folded lacey handkerchief from a Parisian dame, and images of gassed bodies in the trenches, but never a word was spoken about either, despite much prying).

Before the war he rode his bicycle from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island. There was no paved road, and when he arrived in Providence he could not hold his eating utensils at dinner that night.
He also played bridge with the "Welch's", the liberal brother of Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birth Society. I can still remember conversations from the shadows about just exactly how the Commies were going to take over the country...

[pefjr]

Only a few insignificant regrets here...............well, there was that girl....back... uh.......damn, if only...

[Norman Bernstein]

My father (gone 10 years now) used to summarize this sort of thing in a single line, which was an English translation of an old Yiddish aphorism: "We grow too soon old, and too late smart."