I have found my Doorway to Heaven -- My on the Way Out Series

On the Way Out series

Vol.  4

Part  9 

When I put into print that I have found my doorway to heaven doesn't mean my bags are packed and I'm leaving this earth, nor does my current  On the Way Out series reflect the same, instead it is just the opposite. It is about living today as a senior citizen  -- an old-timer --if you will -- man or woman, in a world that seems to be in chaos with no clear path ahead -- just more questions than answers...more heartbreak at times...more worries, just more of everything for the folks over fifty, over 60...over 70...yes, and the 80-somethings, too. 

This forum has concentrated on the senior athlete since 2009...mainly on ball teams that carry a roster of players who still dream of playing the game, just like they used to do close to sixty or seventy years ago.

Us seniors come from a time of milk duds, popcorn, and drive-in theaters. We come from a time when movie stars included actors like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Robert Mitchum, Robert Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean and Glenn Ford...just to name a few.

We watched actresses like Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Hayward, Joan Crawford, and Barbara Stanwyck perform on the screen.

We watched Gone with the Wind, High Noon, The Giant, from the great Edna Ferber's novel...we watched Elia Kazan, who I have already mentioned in my series, direct such great movies like On the Water Front, East of Eden, Splendor in the Grass and A Streetcar Named Desire.

We ate from cereal boxes that had images of our sports heroes on them...we carried lunch boxes to school with Roy Rodgers and Hopalong Cassidy, proudly visible for schoolmates to see.

We watched Bullwinkle and Rocky cartoons and Yogi Bear, too.

All of the above, a lifetime ago.

And now here I sit at the age of 76, waiting for the sun to come up in Parachute, Colorado...waiting for my first sighting of deer this morning as they emerge from the forest and quietly and cautiously make their way into the backyard and then seem to question, just who is that human inside that big glass window? What is he doing eyeballing me?

Well, Mr. Deer. I'm looking at your beauty...and the beautiful landscape behind you...the beautiful forest you just came out of...the clear blue sky this morning...the snow on the mountaintops to the east as I listen to the sounds coming from the Colorado River...the quiet echos of serenity -- all of which suddenly, in less than a week on the Western Slope of Colorado, has put me in a state of calmness of which I swear I've not witnessed for some time.

We all -- young and old -- battle with this overhanging cloud of the coronavirus...some ignore it and have the stamina to balance it all and continue on without a whimper...some choose to proceed cautiously...and maybe overthink things a bit, but we all are in this together. It is better to help one another if we can...don't add chaos to chaos...don't add road rage or bitterness or meanness to the equation.

I'm a simple man with simple words pulsating right out of my fingertips. I'm not a doctor, a psychiatrist, a family plan advisor...nothing like that. I'm just a struggling writer that needs to get the words out of my head, so I can make room for more.

Remember... you young people out there, check on the older generation once in a while and you vibrant old people out there with time on your hands and your health intact, try to interact if you can and make yourself known.

There is plenty of the world out for us old-timers to see. We have our memories from our past safely tucked away. Now, let's make some more...