On the Way Out series
Vol. 2, Part 7
In our lifetime, we -- the senior citizen, a member of the elderly...the vulnerable adults -- as I mentioned in a previous rambling, have spent our years walking, jogging... running, or rolling down the river -- some of us in dress shoes, tennis shoes, baseball shoes, high heels, gumshoes, and cowboy boots. Well, the list goes on, but you get the idea.
We spend most of the time concentrating on the right fit...the comfortable feeling that gets us through the day, the month, the year, and maybe a lifetime --battling along the way and dealing with all the wear and tear we can handle.
All right! I'm two paragraphs in, and most of my readers have figured me out here. I'm not really talking about shoes. Besides, back in my day, back in the Woodstock Days, nobody wore shoes, anyway.
Believe it or not, I am more concerned about walking in someone else's shoes. Not physically, mind you, but a mental stance we all should take as we hobble through life.
It can be challenging. In fact, we sometimes want to take our shoes off and throw them at someone who has somehow lit a fire under us, causing us to have an out-of-body experience. Sorry, didn't mean to go there. But the point is that causes us to react differently; for a moment, we simply are not ourselves.
Someone once said: "You can't understand someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes."
Some of us older folks can't walk a mile, but many still can! We can walk for miles and even do marathons. As I continue to say, don't count out the elderly. But, back to Shoeless Joe. Sorry, it's hard for me to get away from baseball...but I'm trying.
Like many old phrases, it is impossible to pinpoint where the above term originated from. Like so many phrases, it doesn't matter how far back in time or what century the phrase came out of. But, what a meaningful 13 words that last...and last...and last, forever.
The ability to understand people. Reaching the unreachable takes effort, time, and a lifetime.
The world is upside down right now. It's tough to understand exactly where we (I mean, I, for example) are heading.
But the more understanding we can muster, the better off we will be.
We old people are On the Way Out. Not physically. But we are forced to leave much of the future in the hands of the powers that be. There is no way we can walk in their shoes. They must lead us down this current path, this highway with obstacles on both sides of the road, clawing at them at every turn.
As for my narrow highway of life as I know it, put on one shoe at a time, be kind to one another, and if the shoes fit, wear them.
Photo: To put things into perspective, I have a pair of socks I slip on some mornings to help me start the day off on the right foot. On the toes, one is marked L and one R.
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