Come with us now as we lift the veil to the greatbeyond.

Live as if you were to dietomorrow.

Learn as if you were to liveforever.

-MahatmaGandhi

Paul -

It is quite possible we’ve all felt like the title of this chapter at some time or other! After all, when you are young, you feelindestructible.

What other reason would explain the reckless driving by so many young people? They can’t help it, they are influenced by all the TV ads for cars, trucks, and motorcycles and what they are sellingspeed.

Tackling a task such as climbing to thirdfloor windows to paint them might be considered risky by someone who is 50 or more, but to those in their twenties or thirties, it’s only a job. I do believe the statistics show higher rates of accidents by younger people and for a good and valid reason; they take more chances because they feel invincible. To young people the idea of being 50, 60 or 75 years old seems like something light yearsaway.

I was not immune to the recklessness of youth. I had just turned 14 when I spent almost two weeks of my summer holidays at my uncle’s bush camp on the edge of as lake in Northern Ontario. My aunt was the cook for six men and plus her son andmyself.

My cousin and I fastened together a few logs into a makeshift raft with the intention of sailing off on a Tom Sawyerlike adventure. One day, while my cousin went into town with his dad to get some supplies, I decided to give our raft a maidenvoyage.

Using a sturdy piece of wood as an oar, I knelt down and shoved off, sans life jacket (which, to my knowledge at the time, was neither legally required nor in vogue in the forties). The only thing that convinced me to turn back, after going a hundred feet or so, was the frantic pleas from my aunt, standing on the shore, waving her arms. She gave a stern speech on the foolishness of my act. Obviously, she didn’t want me to drown on her watch. I imagine most readers can recall a similar ‘misadventure’.

Many people, approaching retirement, look back on their years and marvel how quickly those years flew by. Time did not go any faster, but, when you are raising a family, putting in long hours at work and taking frequent trips to country retreats (cottages or bush camps) if the finances were available it certainly felt that way. They were too busy to notice the years slipping by, hair getting thinner, sparser (in the men at least) greyer. We must not forget about the pounds accumulating in the mid section because physical activities were shoved aside in favor of moreleisure.

Ask anyone over sixty where time went? Quite likely the resp