Do the math! Yep we are a lot of time governed by numbers. Waking up in the morning to a number, running around all day to a number, looking at a number on a Phone screen and crying, snarling or laughing. Going to a cash register, opening mail and getting a shock at the number, looking at the numbers of candles on a cake and wondering where they all came from, yep it’s a numbers game in a way this life of ours.
Numbers to make you run around like a crazy person, and then one day you can get a number that makes you stop and really look at the numbers and in my case the numbers were 140/90.
The number 50 didn’t do it but 140/90 made me realize that this bloke who thought he was truly invincible did. what did it do? It made me see more clearly.
What’s so special about 140/90? Its high blood pressure and its nasty.
Flashing lights, Head Pressure, Hot Flushes wow am I pregnant, maybe going through menopause what is this I say as I’m walking through the supermarket looking at numbers on the shelf which by the minute are getting even more Blurry. Then bang it hit me, I was for the first time stopped, yep a quick glance to my love and a comment of “Mahal, I don’t feel so good”
I was lucky, it didn’t stop me permanently and I was close to a clinic so the 140/90 number was given quickly as was the number of medicines I am now take and thank god my number wasn’t up!
Ok, I made the statement the number made me see more clearly, how can a number do that? Well it’s a number that if you don’t wake up or change? The next numbers will be 911 or 1800casket. So it has meant some major changes to the number of drinks I have, the number of Calories I intake and the number of appointments I make. It made me realize I’m getting older, but it has done more than that, it made me realize I have a very serious responsibility, and my wonderful friend Paul Boynton sums it up beautifully on his FB page Being Gay Becoming Gray – With Passion, Beauty and a Sense of Adventure
Paul wrote, “And finally, knowing we will never change the current reality by simply resisting it; we must each actively create the change. We do this by living passionate and an adventurous life that realistically and optimistically embraces each stage of the journey and recognizes that growing older is a gift and that being beautiful is not about age or looks but about substance and love.”
Paul’s wonderful page and life does offer wonderful encouragement and support to the gay community but with his words, “Growing older is a gift and that being beautiful is not about age or looks but about substance and love” He sends a message to all of us “Gray Hairs” a message of an awesome responsibility we all share and must take hold with Passion, Beauty and a sense of Adventure.
Made me think, the message is to live, share and demonstrate a life of substance and love to others as we, The Gray Hairs? Also have the wrinkles of experience to do so.
We have seen what inequality does, we have seen what hatred does, we have witnessed what bullying does and we have the “responsibility” to make sure our lives with all this substance all this experience mirrors and gives faith to others that to quote MLK, “With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood”.
Yes a Symphony that plays songs of Substance and Love not of hatred and bitterness.
Yes I have the responsibility to lower 140/90 to make sure I’m around to keep playing those songs, but all of us have the responsibility and ability to speak up, to demonstrate, to make sure that all Gods Children, Black and White, Straight and Gay, Rich and Poor, Young and Elderly, Abled and Disabled all join hands together and sing, “Free at Last, Free at Last, thank god almighty we are free at last. I think MLK might have sung the same.
So my fellow Gray Hairs, Do that Math, enjoy the responsibility, love all with passion and without prejudice, appreciate the beauty and have no fear of the adventure.
These are Hodgies Words.
Big Hugs and Love to Ya
Hodgies Words 