When is it too late to start to live?

When your past is prime! We all know people who more or less dwell in the past. For many of us, the best times we can remember are past times. The future is uncertain, but we can remember those glory days of yesteryear. We still remember the feelings when we were high school heroes, when we were madly in love, when we ran our personal best or when we received first place in the race. Moreover, like the song by Mary Hopkins says:

We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.

However, all things must end and someday all of us will have our past primes. There will come a time in all our lives when our best days are behind us. Some of us will manage to move on, but some of us will stay stuck in the past with memories we do not want to or cannot put behind us. This sounds so inevitable and so fatalistic that it is hard to accept or refute. But perhaps it can be disputed. Perhaps we can always look forward to better days. Perhaps we can continue to have primes in front of us.

What if the conditions of primes were dependent on the choices we make rather than on the vicissitudes of time and fortune? Have you noticed that some people seem to be able to continue with their lives, while others seem to give up on life? Fred Beckey, the famous mountaineer (who is still climbing and is now almost 89 years old) was asked if he regretted not having climbed Mt Everest. He replied “I still have that to look forward to.” Has Fred simply choice a different route? Has he simply refused to give up or accept a “truth” that many of us would say was inevitable? Learn about Mr. Fred Beckey by going to the following link. You will hear and see a man who is 88 years old and still rock and mountain climbing. http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/12/15/sports/golf/1194835655194/the-old-man-of-the-mountains.html

What does it take to keep moving forward and searching for new adventures and new primes? Are you stuck in the past or have you chosen to move forward? Which do you think is the better way? Why?