72 this year

72 two weeks ago—and glad of it. Why regret getting older? I remember being young, ha! There are lessons to be taken from living so many years. Let me mention a few here:

• The cost of youth is ignorance; you know less than you think you do.
• The cost of wisdom is pain; there comes a point where you know more than you want to.
• Nothing is ever as simple as it first appears to be.
• Certainty is one of the great sins.

I could add a few, but what I might add (for example, things like God exists and cynicism is cowardice) are not so much lessons learned as personal convictions founded in faith. I remember Rev. Robin Armstrong in St. Canices, Finglas very well.

Thinking back on those days brought back a surprise memory of the Monkees, one of the most underrated groups of the sixties and a Youtube search revealed:

It was perhaps one of the best lyrics (Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil) 60's pop music produced. When the world (and I) were young, things were simple. The older I got, the more I realised that there were no simple answers to any difficult question, and sometimes no answers at all. Now there are only shades of gray. Nothing is simple, and nothing is certain. If you can't accept this, maybe you're still too young. Give it time. It worked for me.