75 & Cute …

So what does that mean? Perhaps, 75 years old is cute or a blood sugar reading of 75, even a 75 pulse could be considered cute as well? And I do not own up to anything. Ha!

Someone once said, “It’s all in the mind of the beholder.” But what I do know. It is OK, whatever the meaning. We just must make the best of it.

Ooh, the world tells us that anyone who has reached the age of 75 is considered elderly, however, someone really smart said, “75 is the new 55.” But is that in appearance or mental capacity? I like to think an elderly person has entered the most exciting time of their life, called freedom. A time to express thoughts, strategies, creativity, lifestyles and love of man but most importantly, love for the Maker.

This time should be beyond the age when following the crowd is not important. A personage (or scoundrel) who has reached the age of 75 or even 75-plus must blaze their own trail for true happiness and satisfaction of mind. I say, Heck with the rest of them. Yes, I shall make my own pathway.

I am reminded of a poem:

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

5 Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

10 And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

15 I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I—I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Doesn’t this rhyme really express it all? It says to be your own person, think your own thoughts, live your own life and most of all love it. Yes!

An out of town friend recently confided that he didn’t feel as if he were accepted by a certain crowd. He felt out of the loop. He struggled to be included and to no avail. It hurt.

He is a good, good person and should not suffer this type of treatment. As I thought about his emotional wounds, my blood began to boil. I am not familiar with his community but I wanted to go there and do “something to somebody.” I’m not sure what, but they would remember me, for sure.

But then, sigh, I counted to 10 and counted again. I know even though I think I’m a tough cookie, I can’t make people accept my good, kind friend into their loop. It is a hard lesson to learn but not everyone will like him (or me or you). We all must shake it off and go forward. I mean it’s their loss.

But in the meantime as we adjust to slights and downright insults that will never stop, unfortunately (that’s life), we can smile a lot, show genuine kindness then move forward. I would bet in my friend’s situation that this group of people should be termed fakers, not really friends at all, even to each other. My advice: Don’t waste valuable time on them. They are not worthy of your friendship.

Let us suppose a person is 75 years old, has a blood sugar level of 75 and pulse level as well. Well darling, you are in magnificent shape but even if your levels are below or beyond that magic number, live life to the fullest radiating a person filled with kindness, calmness and inner-beauty. These three attributes are contagious. Watch and see – you will have folks ringing your iPhone, texting and emailing, just to check on you, and perhaps offering fun invitations, if you should so incline to accept.

On a personal level, I prefer a front porch with Hubs and KayKay (my Morkie rescue pup), however, there are times I will socialize and one of those ways is by social media. Checkout my new FB group, 75 & Cute. The site is open to the public. Come join us for exciting and uplifting commentary, cute photos (that our grannies would approve) and a mixture of the three attributes: kindness, calmness and inner-beauty.

You know there is nothing better than these three values. Let us layer them on thickly as we seek to live a wonderful, head-turning life in Mississippi.

Anne B. McKee is a Mississippi historian, writer and storyteller. She is listed on the Mississippi Humanities Speakers Bureau and Mississippi Arts Commission’s Performing Artist and Teaching Artist Rosters. See her web site: www.annemckeestoryteller.com