A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine texted me to congratulate me on the 54th Anniversary of my Ordination. It got me to do a lot of thinking.
All of my family members and friends who were present at my Ordination have long gone to their eternal reward. I also reflected on the movie, City Slickers and the character, Mitch Robbins, a bored baby boomer who sells radio advertising time, and is played by Billy Crystal.
On the day he visits his son’s school to tell about his work along with other fathers, he suddenly lets loose a deadpan monologue to the bewildered youngsters in the class:
“Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. It goes by fast.
“When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur.
“Thirties you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?”
“Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother.
“Fifties, you have a minor surgery — you’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery.
“Sixties, you’ll have a major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway.
“Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before, spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, “How come the kids don’t call? How come the kids don’t call?”
“The eighties, you’ll have a major stroke, and you end up babbling with some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand, but who you call ‘Mama.’
“Any questions?”
Billy Crystal’s monologue certainly gave me a lot of chuckles. Most of what he said I could certainly relate to in my life over the past 54 years. I thank God umpteen times a day that with YOUR wonderful help and support I am still able to build a new school in Haiti every year.
And my projects throughout Haiti with YOUR support are helping hundreds of students every day to master digital learning. The students are telling me “that they never dreamed that they would ever be able to even TOUCH a laptop computer.”
I keep reminding God “That Only the Good Die Young!” Yet I know that it won’t be long and I’ll be calling my nurse, “Mama!”
Thanks to Jason Blackeye for the photo.
What parts of Billy Crystal’s monologue do YOU identify with? By what YOU do and by what YOU say, how are YOU staying focused and making a real difference in this world?
TOO MANY CHRISTIANS ARE NO LONGER FISHERS OF MEN AND WOMEN, BUT KEEPERS OF THE AQUARIUM!
