Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah took Lorena, Kelly, and Christian to the Macaroni Grill for a birthday dinner for Kelly last night. I had to work, so I did not get to go. They had a great time. When they got home, we all sat around the island in the kitchen and had a nice talk. The talk covered a wide range of topics. One of those topics was how important it is to enjoy one’s age, whatever it is. I harp on that to Lorena and the kids all the time. It does not good to worry or complain about your age or what you might have missed in life.
I guess I most have gotten that viewpoint from Grandma Sarah because, without prompting, she said, “I don’t ever want to go back. I don’t want to be 17. I don’t want to be 50. I want to be what I am right now.”
She is 77. She and Grandpa Milo are enjoying their lives very much right now. They have a little rental place in Portland close to all of their kids except us. With us, they have a place they can go to get out of the rain. They are close to lots of good restaurants and lots of close friends. They travel a lot. Dad can work on our little business (Quality Corners) whenever he wants. Life is good for them. Being alive at any age is good if you let it be. It is a choice and a big waste not to choose happiness.
One of my favorite quotes is one made by Victor Frankl who was a Jewish prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. He said, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
It is true.
Update: Grandpa Milo called and said he is going to cook one more time again tonight with the kids. We are looking to one more gourmet meal before they return to Oregon tomorrow morning! Pictures tomorrow if I am not too stuffed and sleepy to take them.