Wisdom and Wrinkles

I'LL BE 73 NEXT MONTH AND I'M PROUD OF EVERY WRINKLE. There’s been a lot of energy expended getting me here, and a lot learned on the way.

Those who visit 70 Plus regularly will have heard me say more than once that I believe oldies shouldn’t hide themselves under the nearest bush.

Surely it’s best for them to share the wisdom they’ve gained on their treks through life – for the sake of whippersnappers (of all ages) and for themselves. Oldies also deserve to receive kudos for what they know.

I have a few hobby horses so far as the getting of wisdom is concerned.

Take curiosity. It’s long been my contention that those blessed with the bug of needing to discover are among the luckiest around.

CURIOSITY drives one to do new things. That’s when we brush up against different people and experiences and, unless we’re impervious to our environment, it’s when we LEARN – spelled in capital letters.

Those incurious human beings we all know are the followers – the types who are stuck in the rut that life has handed out TO them. They don’t make their own paths, and much knowledge that could be gained from experience passes them by. Sad eh?

Be curious and we discover a big world out there.

Then there’s TRUST. Trust is number one in my book when it comes to relationships of any kind. Without trust a relationship isn’t worth having.

Picture in your mind walking into a shop to buy the morning paper. That little transaction is built on trust, if you think about it. The shop assistant hands over the newspaper fully trusting that she will receive payment in return.

Imagine if this almost universal trust in shopping transactions broke down – what chaos!

Right now in this little old world, we’re seeing trust dissipating in so many directions, and mores the pity. Nations disintegrate when corruption (ie abuse of trust) takes hold. The financial system similarly, as with the courts in many lands.

Marriage breakdown, of course, is another classic example, and very much closer to home. We can all see the devastation that abuse of trust is causing to families in a street near you. The fact that trust is important is a vital piece of information that many people learn too late.

When we do learn the lesson of trust, and are lucky enough to have trust returned, we gain huge rewards throughout our lives. However, the beginning is always up to us – and that part’s easy.

This week I was impressed when introduced to the concept of a new book that’s coming out in October. Its subject is the wisdom of human beings at each end of the age spectrum – 10 to 100.

‘What I Know – Uncommon wisdom and universal truths from 10-year-olds and 100-year-olds’ will be a reasonably slim volume, weighty with knowledge gained by human beings during short and long lives.

The book is the brain child of Roger Emerson Fishman, a former News Corporation Executive, Vice-President for Worldwide Marketing, who has now formed his own company concentrating on digital strategies.

Roger travelled 3,000 miles from Montana to New York talking to people in all walks of life, trawling for their outlook on positive living. The book is a result. You can find out more here.

He talked to 101-year-old Dorothy Young who was escape artist Harry Houdini’s assistant in 1924. She believes Harry chose her for the job because she ‘had faith in herself, just the way she was’.

That rings bells for me.

Roger gathered this little pearl from a much younger person called Joseph:

‘The secret to life is not to try too hard. It seems like usually when I’m wanting or

looking for something, the best way is to not really look too hard, and then I find it.’

That’s in my armory as well. We operate much better when we are relaxed don’t we?

Do you have little pearls of wisdom of your own that you’d like to share? Pop them in a comment below.