From the desk of Dan Price
Trust me I can lead the way...
As I near the age of eighty and now within striking distance of another decade on this earth, I have one giant wish and that is to have the good Lord decide to take a deep breath and once again hang tight with this old man. I’m sure he’s getting tired of putting out the safety cones along the highway for me to maneuver around.
As I said in a previous post, maybe that fork in the road that I have been searching for seventy-plus years is just not on the table…never has been.
Instead, that final path, that final detour on this earth, will continue to remain a mystery. There is beauty along the highway, that’s for sure. I didn’t notice the beauty before. Was I just too young? Was I full of so much vinegar…full of so many brainless thoughts, especially as a young adult when I was caught up in everything from beer commercials to…well beer commercials?
I couple of brewskies and the world is yours to explore. Good times are ahead. The opposite sex will come running, just saunter up to the bar, grab the long neck of the bottle in your hand…tip back your cowboy hat, just like the Urban Cowboy himself, John Travolta, and enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to think later.
Wrong!
The thing is I was born long before Travolta, long before Stayin’ Alive and the hit movie from 1977, Saturday Night Fever. I was already thirty-two at the time and was out there searching for the fork in the road.
Urban Cowboy strikes a chord with me. I went to high school in Tucson, Arizona and I was the sports editor of our weekly award-winning paper. On our staff at the time was Aaron Latham, who would go on to stardom in my book. Latham co-wrote the script for Urban Cowboy and was the author of many Western fiction books. He married Lesley Stahl, the 60-minutes correspondent on CBS News.
Sadly, Latham passed away on July 23, 2022, at the age of 78.
Latham found that path…his fork in the road and never looked back.
Now back to my early days and that highway I was walking down…no the highway I was running down.
The sun will never set. Time stands still. Enjoy every moment, go to bed late, get up early and do it all over again. Maybe hold down a job, maybe be somewhat successful…but continue to forge ahead with the tiger by the tail, so to speak, with enough energy left in the tank to go to bed late and get up in the morning and do it again.
Wrong, again!
I had yet to stare a giant Sequoia tree in the face, run the Rapids…watch the stars burn bright…in short think ahead…and live life, but more importantly, notice life and cradle my surroundings as if it were the final time I’d see a river flow or have the prairie wind collide on the surface of my skin.
I’m doing it now. At the age of 77, I’m taking it all in…and I simply want more…want more time to do the things I should have done before.
It’s my senior moment. Many of my friends are going through the same thing. I’m sure of it. The coronavirus has cut into our way of life; the economy is in a tailspin. Many seniors are forced to change their ways…ways they have lived in comfort for a decade or so.
It’s comforting to know we are not alone in our thoughts as we live through what was once called our “golden years.”
I hope to see you all…down the highway…the one just ahead.
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