The Random Thoughts of Henry Holloway
How old are you? That is always an embarrassing question to ask a lady. They have a saying that a woman is as old as she looks and a man as old as he feels. The other day I was taken to be a much younger man than I really am and I did enjoy passing that one on to my wife. Of course she took a great deal of the credit for that. Secretly I think we all like a little bit of flattery now and again and it does us good.
Well, never mind the years, and forget about the looks, though both are important. How do you feel? If you have lost the power to see a joke, especially against yourself; if you are disillusioned and no longer believe in the romance of life; if little children are a nuisance to you; if you think of nobody but yourself; I don’t care what your birth certificate says, you are getting old.
Has life become a burden to you? Has it lost its wonder and its thrill of joy? Do you dread the dawn that brings a new day?
As I have hinted I am not an old man and I feel young, but I have seen enough of life to say that I do not know anybody who does not need a bit of encouragement now and again. G.K. Chesterton once said, ‘A man’s friends like him, but they leave him as he is. A man’s wife loves him and is always trying to change him.’ Whatever about the changing, I do think we all need a little bit more of the love that understands and sympathizes and encourages. Everybody who knows us should be braver, happier and better fitted for life for having known us. It was Charles Dickens who put it in a nutshell when he said that we all need ‘a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires and a touch that never hurts.’ Don’t expect too much from people. If life has been easy for you, don’t forget that for other people it has meant fighting every yard of the road. And be considerate of people and patient with their faults. For many people life is harder than we think, because they are braver than we know. Sometimes the heaviest crosses are carried by the people with the brightest faces. One of the best ways to overcome you own depressions is to find somebody else who is down and give them a pat on the back. We too easily disclaim responsibility for other folk’s happiness by saying, “I’ve never done anybody any harm’. The question is, have we done them any good?
Most people have their own ideas as to what the final judgment of life will be like. We have only one authentic picture of it and it is in these words, ‘In as much as ye did it unto Me.’
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