A lesson of optimism
Optimism has no limits! Some people love life and continue to love it even as they reach an age, when supposed to think about its end. I'm going to tell you a story that sounds pretty incredible. In fact, this is an example that has attracted my great attention and that I could not help but share with people who lack optimism and refuse to enjoy life to the end.
For example, there is this man with completely white hair, met by chance at the shore of the river. I was surprised to see him try pushing a boat into the water, I approached him to help him, but he gave me a sign to let him do it and kept pushing his boat out with all his efforts.
I pretended to leave again, then, driven by curiosity, I retraced my steps and asked him what he was going to do with this boat. He then sat on the edge of his boat, smiled a paddle out of it and told me he wanted to learn how to paddle because he was going to compete in a canoe kayak.
I watched the man with a little more attention, he had a swarthy face and very thin arms and I wondered if he would be able to play arms for an activity requiring a certain force in the muscles. He must have noticed my astonishment because he asked me with a smile if I thought he was too old for this kind of activity. I nodded negatively and told him that I didn't know his age anyway.
Then the man laughed and I could see that he no longer had any teeth. So he offered me a ride in his boat so we could talk at ease. So we pushed the boat right into the water and it started playing with its shoulders with its paddles. I was surprised by the force with which he handled the oars. He told me that he was in his ninety-fifth year and that he loved new experiences. For the moment, his dream is to canoe and he thought he would train rafting afterwards.
We talked a lot together and I learned that there is really no specific age to learn new things, whether it be a sport or an intellectual or manual activity. He also informed me that his wife going on her hundred years, she too, had started painting and that she made very pretty paintings with cheerful colors and full of life.
I thought it was simply extraordinary to always expect something new in life, no matter how old you are in years, if the mind is still alert and if the love of things is still in you. This toothless gentleman with completely white hair is a living lesson in defying time and a wonderful way to expect something from life as long as you breathe and can move even very small steps.