A few years back, a group with a funky name, Five for Fighting, wrote a piano-based chart topper, 100 Years to Live.
The lead singer starts, almost in falsetto: “I’m 15 for a-a moment, caught in between 10 and 20…”
Compelling lyrics pull us ahead over the arc of our lives. I can’t get the song out of my head right now, and my new guitar coach, John May, is helping me with the voicings
Here is the main part for us boomers:
Half time goes by, suddenly we’re wise
Another blink of an eye, 67 is gone
The sun is getting high… we’re mov-v-i-ing on.
Moving on, indeed, through our 100 years, or fraction thereof. The years will bring the heavy times, but one of our jobs is to keep the trip as light as possible, so we can keep meaningfully moving on. A good friend of mine, a 5-year widow in her mid-60s, just picked up skiing so she could accompany her 88-year-old new love, who is skiing still after 78 years. Things are moving on for them.
Another singer, from a different era, taught us how to move on for these 100 years.
And if you should survive, to 105
Think of all you’ll derive, out of being ali-i-ive.
And here is the best part: you’ll have a head start,
If you are among the very young at heart.
So like the Five for Fighting song says: bring that inner 15 year-old along with you, no matter what age you are. There’s never a wish better than this… to be young at heart.