AGE

Although Sunday is two days away -- but for Oz-influenced Malaysians, who have gone away todie, this one is not for you! -- yet Desi is in the mood to RUMINATE. It's for my bud Jon A, just a heartbyte away! And one other friend far away, but yet Always on my mind.

This is because of a friend just two weeks younger than Desi, and I'm younger than DS Anwar Ibrahim by two weAks2-- a PM-in-waiting! -- complained to me yesterday that too many of his acquaintances of his age are wasting precious time fighting over small things -- we call it "petty" quarrels.

We both have been encouraging each other -- yes, we were classmates in the gOod olde days when just Brinsford College trained teachers spoke more or less perfect English, so it was rare for pupils -- unlike my nephews' gen-- to point out any mis'takes on the instructors' part. I had been a "rewrite" newsperson for some time, and yes, even graduates in English (of my nephews' gen!) major had their copies of just 100-150words glittering with a dozen grammar mistakes! I was inclined to advise a couple of them to go elsewhere for a new job -- but then we would have half the newsroom empty of reporters!:(


Back to age -- it's the mental attitude that determines how old or young one feels -- yes, a p[op songhot in the airwaves runs "Forever Young", but that would be against reality.

On the weekday a few before DS Anwar faced the Sodomy II judge, he was in Seremban, and he had remarked: "No worries about me going to jail. I'm still strong, although I'm 64 years old, I feel 46!" -- a refrain my classmate and I were sharing since last August when we started singing the Beatles' "When I'm sixty-four". I wonder if my ER wit' gOod memory noticed then it was my Anthem For Now (see above, now featuring Connie Francis of my young Gen!:)

So I close this early reflection -- I pen such (w)rites when the mood catches my imagination:) -- wit' a borrowed write (how I wished it was Desi's!) ~~from page 17 of A. Dudley Dennison, Jr.'s "Contemporary Illustrations for Speakers & Teachers":~~

Age

Age is a quality of mind.
If you have left your dreams behind.
If hope is lost,
If you no longer look ahead.
Then you are old.

But if from life you take the best,
And if in life you keep the jest,
If love you hold,
No matter how the years go by.
No matter how the birthdays fly,
You are not old!