The Last Call

 Although this post is completely unrelated to classic cars or anything automotive, it is relevant to life, maybe yours but definitely mine. As a surprise for my wife on our anniversary I decided to buy another project car. Just kidding! I'm not that daft... Actually I bought tickets to one of her favorite musicians, Alan Jackson. This is his last tour and is aptly named "Last Call, One More For The Road."  Let me tell you, this man puts on one heck of a concert! The show was like a trip down memory lane with a lot of his classic music videos and cool stories that Alan recounted throughout the show. 

We attended his last show for 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah and it dawned on me that this is it for him. Everyone that was there could clearly tell that he loves performing but time was catching up with him. It was painful to watch him walk across the stage and lean on a special rig when he was singing. I think he was in pain but wanted to be in top form for his fans so he declined taking any pain killers. I had not seen a recent picture of him so it was a bit of a surprise for me when I saw him up on stage. My first thought was: man, he looks old. My second thought was: man, he is only a few years older then me! It was just like when you see a classmate from your high school days and the first thing you notice is how old they look. Then reality comes crashing in when you realize that you are the same age and probably look just as old, or older!

While the brain is a physical organ that can be seen and studied, the mind is a conceptual idea representing our thoughts, feelings, and consciousness, which cannot be physically touched or observed. My brain may be physically old but my mind is consciously young, hence my reaction when I see someone around my age and think they look like Methuselah. Now I have been told numerous times that I look young for my age, but anyone would look young as compared to a 969 year old! Perhaps Henry Ford said it best: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”