Lisa

Although she has mixed ethnicity, she is very Italian, like a Ferrari.

I think that it is beautiful how the Italians will meld art and function.

I believe that it is part of their culture.

When I am on her, she now fits me perfectly, and I am beginning to feel like 'one' with her.

Like my arm.

I think left, and we move left.

I think stop, and we stop.

It's all about putting in the miles, to where you get to that place of cohesiveness.

At that point, the ride is no longer about the present, but about enjoying the journey, and focusing on the destination.

Then you can smile.

Ghosts Appear And Fade Away

“I can't get to sleep

I think about the implications

Of diving in too deep

And possibly the complications

Especially at night

I worry over situations

I know I'll be alright

Perhaps it's just imagination

Day after day it reappears

Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear

Ghosts appear and fade away

Alone between the sheets

Only brings exasperation

It's time to walk the streets

Smell the desperation

At least there's pretty lights

And though there's little variation

It nullifies the night from overkill”

-          Colin Hay

Step, by tedious step, I stumble away from abject failure.

Alas, it has been another good day.

Thoughts on Aging

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."

--Eleanor Roosevelt 

I have been thinking a lot lately about the aging process. What I have observed, seemingly, is that in the first half of life, it’s relatively easy to guess someone’s approximate age, whereas in the back half of life, determining someone’s age is much more difficult. Sure, genetics is a factor, but I believe that your ancestry plays a minimal role in determining how well you age. What if we decided to stop tracking our age? How old would we be if there wasn’t a number attached to it? 

I believe that the core of who you are doesn’t change much as you age. Your body changes, but you are always essentially the same person. Those that choose to live life with pessimism, and those that relish the role of the victim, are prime candidates to embrace their age as another excuse to confirm that their outlook on life is justified. On the other hand, those that live life, peering through eyes that are optimistic and hopeful, will see aging as the time to reap a bountiful harvest, and feel comfort in knowing that they have a bank account that is full of knowledge. 

The benefit of aging is that you understand, for the most part, how your life worked out. The unknown future is no longer a significant factor, as it was when we were young. We never stop learning and developing, but we are now free to apply newly found knowledge in a way that was never possible when we were younger. 

There are two key attributes that I have noticed as ‘common threads’, with regard to people that appear more youthful than their age;

1. A playful spirit. I find that those people who believe that play is to be taken seriously, and have the ability to sort through, and balance the serious side of life, always have a youthful glow and vibrancy about them. Those that cease playing, grow old.
2. The ability to love. Being able to love is the great preserver of youth, and inevitably, those that radiate youth, have a caring, giving, nurturing, and compassionate nature. Maybe this is where the term ‘young at heart’ comes from. 

Thank God that wrinkles aren't painful. The key is to make sure that your heart and soul don’t develop wrinkles. 

Eubie Blake, at the age of 100, said; "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." I don’t think that Eubie was just talking about his body.

Second Law

You might be wondering why I titled this blog “Second Law”. Here is my explanation.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics is commonly known as the Law of Increased Entropy. "Entropy" is defined as a measure of unusable energy within a closed or isolated system (the universe for example). As usable energy decreases and unusable energy increases, "entropy" increases. Entropy is also a gauge of randomness or chaos within a closed system. As usable energy is irretrievably lost, disorganization, randomness and chaos increase.

Isn’t that the way that everything seems to go? Isn’t this a deep-seated rule of life? Doesn’t everything seem to constantly unravel and change? Life, death, and rebirth. I contend that this is not just a law related to physics. We are constantly living with this, because in the bigger picture, it exists everywhere. Our environment, our relationships, our careers, and our health eventually fall into a state of increasing entropy. From the moment that anything is conceived, it begins to fall apart.

At first glance, this sounds bad, but the truth is that there is a lot of opportunity associated with this phenomenon. Along with the eventual disentanglement of everything, comes the birth of new things. Nothing is ever lost, but instead it is reborn. When the great physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that anything that fell into a black hole was lost forever, it created quite the uproar in the scientific community, because this violated another fundamental law of physics. Eventually Mr. Hawking capitulated, and agreed that the information that fell into a black hole was indeed not lost. Understanding that there is a continuous cycle of death and rebirth, allows us to anticipate and manage change. If you can bring yourself to let go, and ride-the-wave of nature, you can see new opportunities in front of you more clearly. You can seize the day. You can enjoy the moment. You can appreciate the beauty. You can relate to the inevitability of change, and move forward, when others are simply stunned.