Lessons Learned At Fifty-Four

I know that fifty-four is not normally one of the so-called milestones in ones journey thorough life. But for some reason this morning as I awoke, have gone through another night of storms. I felt like sharing a few words; I won’t be so arrogant to call them words of wisdom just as my title simple states, “Lessons Learned At Fifty-Four.”

There is on major lesson that I have learned and that is it’s o.k. to not know the answers. I use to be a very arrogant young man; I can admit that now and not feel self-conscious. I mean when I look back on some of the things I did in order to impress people with my extensive knowledge base of useless facts. I am amazed that I didn’t get my little butt kicked. I unfortunately enjoyed being the one in the room who thought he knew everything about everything.

But life has taught me the importance of listening. This is a dying art in the ever increasing violent rhetoric that is passing for civil discourse in or society. I have special appreciation for the art of the interview being that I spent eleven years doing interviews on television. At the beginning I use to have a list of questions that I would mechanically walk through. As I began to study the tapes I saw a very disjointed and uninteresting interview. It wasn’t a true conversation the best interview is not an interview at all but a conversation.

And the art of conversing requires a give and take a ying and yang. This is what I think is missing in the American political arena. Politicians really don’t listen to what the people have to say, they have fallen in love with the sounds of their own voices. Believe you me, if there was a recovery group for diarrhea of the mouth, I’d be chairing the meetings.

Another lesson I have learned is that life is truly a gift from God and we should treasure each day and make the most of it, because the present is truly a gift. No I am not going to proclaim that I have even come close to perfecting this one. But as the comedian Steve Harvey said,” Don’t trip, God’s not done with me yet.”

But the most important lesson for me has been staying away from poison people. You know what I mean the people who just radiate negativity from every pore of their being. These people can show up at a picnic and turn a sunny day into an all out thunderstorm. These people will steal your energy with their constant negative response to any and everything you are trying to accomplish. My advice to you regarding theses type of people is very simple, when you see them coming turn and run like your butt was on fire.

No matter the subject they will find some way to put the conversation in a bad light. These people must be avoided at all cost. Well I don’t normally write very long articles. I heard an old preacher say,” it don’t gotta be long to be strong.” My birthday present to you, God Bless!!!