I’ve never been the fastest at anything other than perhaps eating and reading. Mom was constantly telling me to slow down at meals and chew my food. My wife offered up a serious warning with her lecture. “You’ll choke someday. That’s how Janis Joplin died!” I believe she meant Mama Cass Elliot, but I wasn’t going to correct her.
Where my reading is concerned no one has ever complained. I’ve been a fast reader going back to the earliest days, with SRA (Science Research Associates) labs in elementary school finetuning my ability. No classmate was quicker, and even with weakening eyes I’m still a whiz. No brag just fact!
The phrase “slow and steady” comes from the classic fable of the rabbit and the hare. In this story, the hare is fast and confident, but he becomes overconfident and takes a nap during the race.
The turtle, moving slowly but steadily, never stops and eventually wins the race. The lesson is that consistent effort and patience often lead to success, even if progress seems slow at times.
Other examples include a student who spends little time studying every day instead of cramming at the last minute, is likely to perform better on exams. Similarly, someone saving a small amount of money each month will eventually build up substantial savings, demonstrating that perseverance often outweighs speed.
Bicycling is something I was good at, and I still ride, but I learned early on that being the fastest doesn’t always pay dividends in the end. My knees and hips are still able to nicely function without needing replacements, this partly because I didn’t push my torso beyond its capability. I give the bulk of the credit here to Jesus Christ for helping keep me in good health.
Now that I’m an older homosapien male, I have nothing to prove, other than I can still move forward without the assistance of an electric motor. Hopefully, that day never arrives when I need one.
Driving around town, I notice lots of potential hares as they tailgate and attempt to push me up the road. If the speed limit says 35 that’s where you’ll find my truck speedometer pegged. Being retired, I’m in no hurry to get anywhere as those days are long gone.
Walking is the same. No longer do I scurry about a grocery store in a tizzy to burn up calories. Younger folks behind me will just have to pass when the opportunity arises. Walk and smell the roses is my motto, although around Havasu, it’s more like inhale mesquite and paloverde pollen.
Joleen says that I sometimes don’t walk a straight line in stores, or on the hiking and biking paths in Rotary Park. I’ve noticed that myself, blaming it on my shoes or deteriorating asphalt, neither of which is the problem.
It appears that my slow and steady is turning to slow and unsteady, a trait that many seniors have. Despite this, if I can keep each foot moving forward all is good. Slow and unsteady still beats not moving at all.
I’ll end this with a bit of humorous wisdom that a coworker gave me years ago. I was around 30 at the time while Martin Allen was in his 70s. Martin grew up in Arizona, where he worked in the copper mines of Bisbee before moving to Alaska. Some of his words are changed to make it acceptable to all readers, although some might still be offended.
“Two bulls were standing on a hill looking down upon a group of heifers. The youngest bull, full of testosterone, snorted and boldly proclaimed, “I’m gonna run down there and make love to one of them bovines.”
The older bull, chewing on a blade of grass, shook his head in disagreement before replying. “Not me, I’ll walk down there and make love to them all!”
I suppose only a few got the hidden message. As a young man, it took a moment to fully understand what Martin was trying to say. After it sunk in, with me being a rookie mechanic, his lesson was on the same level as Albert Einstein, at least to me it was.
I’ve never forgot Martin Allen, putting his wisdom to good use in other areas of my life. Before closing, I took a popular John Deere advertisement regarding their lawnmowers and twisted it to fit this story.
“It’s not how slow you mow – it’s how well you mow slow!”
I like to write junk... 