Eighty

As I approach my eightieth birthday I am reminded of the Spanish song:”La vida es muy corta.”  And yet it seems a long, long time since I was a tow-headed kid splashing in an enameled wash tub filled with water in our backyard in Riverside.

I have come to wonder: “What is it all about?”  Were I a religious man, I am not, I might say that God has a purpose for each of us.  However I have come to believe that each of us finds his or her own purpose, For myself I spent much of my life surfing through life with no more purpose than to fulfill natural needs and desires.  Only as I have grown older have I come to respect and act on a need to help others.

Robert Niel Beatie – February 16, 2013