64 | March 2013 www.womanthismonth.com Iwas thinking about my mother the other day after I got off the phone from our biweekly conversation. She asked me a question that I had no answer for and for the first time in decades the woman actually had me stumped. WoMentality By Hard-headed Woman “Somebody should tell us right from the start of our lives that we are dying. Then we might live life to the full every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now; there are only so many tomorrows.” - Pope Paul VI. “What is the point to life if waking up every day just brings about the same routine?” I considered my mother’s age of 72. I guess by then I’ll be asking the same. Old enough I thought, for some clarity. She really had me thinking, “What am I doing here?” In my late thirties, single and confused as can be, I find myself standing at a crossroad. In one direction lies a town called Old age and in the other the villages of Senility and Discontentment, where my parents reside. Are we here to find something — perfection, perhaps? Maybe it’s happiness, bliss and even nirvana? Or is this, what we are already living, really it? And then I took a flight, for vacation reasons. And suddenly I was surprised by life itself. At the wrong side of 30, not many things do that. Most of the trivialities in life have been experienced many times over. Of things that annoy me, one of the highest ranking is boarding an aircraft to find someone else in my assigned seating. I book a window because I want a window. So my trip to the Far East started badly when 8K was already occupied by another person. A show of both boarding passes proved that neither of us was at fault. I relinquished my seat to the lady already occupying it. Seating sorted, all happy, I proceeded to comfort myself when lady in my seat began to talk. This is the second thing that really ticks me off. Of all my flown miles, one thing I have never done is to talk to the person seated beside me even during what seemed like certain doom. We are merely seated beside each other by chance, not choice. Massive difference! At first I tried not to listen, but eventually and strangely I found myself intrigued, interested, amused and laughing along with her life story. The flight took six hours. I slept for one; we talked for five. On my bucket list, I had among my entries the feat of holding a conversation with a total stranger about nothing in particular. That box has now been checked. 8K is no longer a stranger, but a wonderful acquaintance. What is the point to all this? Well sometimes, stop and smell the roses. You never know when your life will come to a screaming halt, and unlike my mother, I can now answer her question. Vincent Van Gogh stated, “One must work and dare if one really wants to live.” Sometimes we may need a reminder. I just had mine on the aircraft. The world is full of amazing things and amazing people and if you shut yourself off you just never know what you’re missing out on. I’m only sorry I haven’t struck up conversations on every other flight I’ve been on. From now on I’ll chat like a parrot. What’s the Point?
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