PHOTOGRAPHED JANUARY 5, 2012

Sue worked as an accountant at the 1 Fifth Avenue restaurant in
Greenwich Village right off the Park.  We had been friends even since
she walked into in Weight Watchers class on East 72nd street. From the
first day she talked about waiting for retirement so she could get her
Social Security and using the money she saved open a small antique shop on Third Avenue. The day she
got her first check she called me--I was living in Memphis by then--and
told me she had found just the right place and had signed the papers to
lease the shop. The next day she started to move the antiques she had
been accumulating from trips to estate sales and going antiquating in
the New England States. Four days later her daughter called me and told
me Sue had died.

Here,
at Gateway, where I live, there are 260 people over 62 years of age,
mostly in their late 70s to early 80s and most have regrets of not doing
what they wanted to do and now can't do it either to lack of money or
health.

Just
a few examples--not using real names--there is Mona. She and her
husband Bill had dreamed for years that when the kids grew up and left
home they would buy a motor home and travel all over the United States
making a point to visiting all the National Park. By the time Bill was
60 he had 4 heart by-passes, 2 strokes and early signs of Alzheimer's.
His illness ate most of their money and now Mona, instead of seeing
National Parks is watching her husband 'fade' away.

If
I wanted to I could spend hours listening to people who had dreams,
goals, desires but never reached them: Norman who wanted to sky dive,
Lisa who wanted to go on cruises, John and Linda who wanted to open an
animal shelter,  Billy who was going to write the 'Great American Novel'
but never had/made the time.

I
am a guy who has very few regrets in life and whether it was on impulse
or compulsive I did things without thinking of the consequences,
without ever thinking, "I Shouldn't", "I can't afford it" and 'saving
for a rainy day' never entered my mind.  In the 1970s when I was in my
30s and was making money hand over fist I didn't think of 'investing'
money in condos on Miami Beach that I could get dirt cheap or playing
the stock market investing in the future and, instead, I spent what I
was making. I would take off July 15 to August 15 on vacation going to
South America or Tahiti or Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver, Hawaii or
buying a new white Caddy convertible and spend a month travelling all
over the southwest one summer, the southeast the next and the following
the northwest and, finally, the northeast.

In
1976 I became enamoured of the Broadway musical "A Chorus Line" and
became a 'groupie' of the show going to New York for long weekends and
seeing 3-4 performances of it and then when it went on tour I would go
Atlanta, Dallas, St. Louis, Miami, etc., spending Thursday to Sunday in
first rate hotels in between seeing the show and eating in first class
restaurants.

I
paid for doing what I wanted by having to declare bankruptcy twice
which in turn made my car insurance so high I couldn't afford a car and
today don't have one and have to depend on others for transportation. I
didn't put money aside for my 'old age' and rely on others for my some
of my basics in life such as food and shelter but in my 30s I didn't
think of how I would be living in my 70s and, let me tell you, I don't
regret it for one minute. I don't live with "I could have", "I should
have", "I would have". I don't sit on The Point thinking of what I could
have done but, instead, thinking of what I have done, the places I've
seen, the people I have met, the great life I have lived.

Day
after day I read blogs of people who 'one day'  want to do this or that
always giving excuses as to why they can't/won't do it now and I really
want to shout "DO IT!" because in the future you may not have the
health, all your faculties, the energy--be selfish and don't worry about
the future as it will take care of itself and forget the 'kid's
inheritance' and spend it on yourself because, trust me, I see it all
the time, your kids won't be there for you as they will be too busy
leading their lives!

I
expect many of you to say "Yes, but----,"--go ahead and don't see your
dreams come true, live your old age with regrets and see where all your
sacrifices get you!

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"Every revolution

was once a thought

in one man's mind."

Ralph Waldo Emerson  1803-1882 American Essayist, Poet, Philosopher

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