Life’s Curveballs

This is what the oldest blogger wrote on the last post of her blog, All About Olive. Her final message was to sing a happy song. She was 108 and shared “her thoughts on modern life and her experiences living through the entire 20th Century,” says an AFP article. I haven’t actually read any of her posts but it fascinates me to hear how centenarians explain their longevity, for I am sure I will never be among them.

For one thing, my family history is against me, and secondly, I’m not a happy optimist person. I never sing happy songs but I applaud the people that can. However, in spite of happiness, many happy optimist people die at a young age so just being happy and optimist is not a recipe for longevity. Additionally, good people do die young, just look at the latest good person casualty, Tony Snow. His happiness and optimism was infectious and it came through every time I saw him on the television or listened to him on the radio.

I wish there were lessons you could take to be happy and optimist but I think it is something you either are born with or develop at a very early age. Unfortunately, I was born with bad genes and I never developed an optimist attitude in early childhood. Therefore, my goal now is to leave this world a better place than when I arrived. I’m not sure how useful it will be, but I’ve been photographing tombstones throughout the county in which I live and I post the information on Find A Grave. My goal is to photograph and transcribe as many graves as I can in hopes that this information will be of helpful to someone searching for a long lost ancestor. It may not be much but it’s something that I can do. It doesn’t require happiness or optimism, but I do feel at peace in the graveyard. It’s just me and my camera, and God, and it feels right.

Taking it day by day,

Larry