Why is it important to stay current?

                            

I know that I blat on & on about this. Yes, I do know. And I have been caught out quite a few times not being current.

It's good to keep up with what's happening

Recently, I thought I’d start using trains to get around, where appropriate. I had a major embarrassing time. First, I couldn’t find the timetable at the railway station (I was on the wrong side of the tracks, literally). I had to ask an extremely old lady what to do. Then, I couldn’t work the ticket machine. Luckily there was a school boy there who sorted me out. I was embarrassed. I keep doing this sort of cringe-worthy thing, so I have decided to get out & about, here & there, just to keep up with what’s happening in the world of machinery.

I was the bottom of the class at (free) computer school, 6 years ago, but now I can whizz around a computer very well. I think it has to do more with worrying about wrecking the computer & then having to pay to get it sorted, that makes people a bit scared around computers, but in reality, it is just like learning a new language.

Don't let your years hold you back

I have done all sorts of things in my life, refusing to be defined by circumstance, finances, sex, or age: 

• I have travelled overseas alone, several times, on the smell of an oily rag
• I have started small businesses with no capital
• I have learnt great spiritual secrets by studying & living these secrets
• I have friends of all ages: some in their 80s, some in their early 20s. I do not define friendship by age
• I have been affluent & I have been, shall we say, very not affluent?

But along the way I have never stopped looking ahead. There is so much that anyone who is not in some of the atrocious world circumstances, can do. There is so much I can’t do too, but that’s just me.

Why stay current with how we look?

Regarding our appearance is another matter. There are reasons to stay current. The first is, as Helen Mirren said, that being stuck in the past in our appearance makes us invisible. When we are invisible, we are treated as someone who has no value. And that’s just not nice. It’s also ageist.

I know we can feel “young” wearing clothes, hair & make-up that we wore when we were younger. But it just doesn’t look youthful. It looks “old”, stuck in the past. 

Maintain enthusiasm for life

And, being current is tied up with knowledge, too:

• if we keep learning, we keep growing
• our curiosity stays “awake”
• our enthusiasm is fired up
• we find ways to work out things to do with what we are learning
• we are able to work longer hours at what we are learning

These are all youthful attributes.

Don’t go rushing into not being current. I know older people who have businesses, travel the world teaching their modality, teach yoga, keep working, & all of these whom I am thinking of, are over 70. The yoga teacher is in her 80s & still works part time as a psych nurse. Keep up with your profession, keep up with what’s happening in the world, in technology, in everything that you can. It is truly much more interesting.