Writing My Thoughts Down – Thoughts from December 27, 2022

I’m back at work today and as promised in the brochure at the beginning of this seminar, I’m back to writing my thoughts on my phone. I’m always tempted to say, “write my thoughts down”, but my fancy grammar checker discourages it. We rarely write things on paper anymore so maybe that’s why it’s discouraged or it was always bad form. It’s a habit I picked up many years ago when I actually wrote things down on paper. It makes little sense for most of what I write today. I’m slowly but surely removing it from my vocabulary, but it’s still in the background of my mind.

Patti and I went to our mobile home’s Christmas party on the 22^nd. They had really good brownies with frosting and chocolate chip cookies. There were mainly large families with kids at the tables where we sat. We sat next to two women who were speaking Spanish to one another. We stood out among the people that were there. They had a raffle near the end. We won nothing and didn’t talk about Charlie Manson with anyone. That remains a mystery. We left shortly after.

Patti and I went to Patti’s sister’s house for Christmas Eve. Both her sisters and their families were there. We played Patti’s gift exchange game and everyone enjoyed it. After we ate, there was a gathering of the young people by the stairs in the center of the house. These were nieces and nephews, or sons and daughters of the nieces and nephews. I joined them, saying, “So this is where the young people are. It was tiring hanging out with those old people.” I found out later that there was a secret old person like me upstairs that was listening to the conversation. He’s a fellow goofball like me so he didn’t interrupt it too much. It was the kind of non-serious conversation I enjoy. I have become an old person who hasn’t let the stress of life plunge me into a sarcastic and cynical boredom. I still want to have fun in life and do, mostly.

The conversation remained fun until some of the old people came in and ruined the fun times. Many old people want to amplify every moment in life until they squeeze everything interesting out of it. Making bad decisions is more important than seeking only successes in life. If you rank young people’s interests economically, you are missing the point of perusing interests. If you try to convince your child to do the right thing, you need to make sure you are doing the right things in your life. Criticizing them should allow them to criticize you. When you only sound like a bitter old person to young people, they will ignore you. That’s what I do with bitter old people.