Great Granddad???

Every time I walk through the grocery line at Publix Supermarket, the cashier asks,

“How are you doing, Sir?”

To which I almost always respond,

“You call me ‘sir,’ I look around for my daddy!”

(Which at best elicits a smile from the intended listener).

After this initial attempt at (dry) humor, I immediately add,

“But I’m fine

… for a great granddad.”

And after my second bit of phraseology, (information the clerk might be happy to do without) I add,

“And this great granddad ain’t just any common old great granddad. He pedals 10 miles a day.”

(And if the cashier seems especially polite, but equally disinterested in the information I have chosen to share with her, I might add,

“Yep. I’ve been pedaling 3 ½ years now. As of this moment, I’m up to 11,220 miles!”

It was only after I went through that same old routine today, for what may be the 100^th time, that the gravity of the situation “came home to roost.”

I am the father of a daughter who is the mother of a daughter who is the mother of a son!

FOUR (Count ‘em) 4 generations who live, and breathe and move, (and are quite healthy at this writing, thank you very much).

And it occurs to me that my last great grandparent, ‘granddaddy John,’ went on to his reward a short few months after I was born,

… almost 70 years ago

It hardly seems more than a few scant years since I was preparing to graduate from high school. And it hardly months since the advent of so many of the other hallmarks of my life.

My salvation experience. My wedding. My military enlistment. The birth of my children. My wedding; (Déjà vu). My counseling ministry; (still going strong). My civilian retirement. My military retirement. Etc. Etc.

Nevertheless, I’m still 30, that is …(if I avoid mirrors).

It’s easy to feel rather old if I spend too much time thinking about the number of generations which have already outdated my own. And in spite of my two wheeled vehicular mileage, I’m prone to reflect on the mileage I’ve added to my physiology, and the resulting girth I’ve added to my waist.

It’s then, however, that I put on my counselor’s hat, and practice a psychological technique referred to as ‘Reframing.’ (Like taking an old frame off a work of art, and installing a new, more suitable one).

Nope. I’m not old. I’m fine as wine. I’m good as gold. I’m sharp as a tack. I’m hard as a rock. (Well, let’s not get carried away with ourselves).

There’s a commercial on television which depicts a rather attractive sixtyish woman walking down a woodsy pathway. As she wanders along a voiceover reflects,

“I’m sixty. I still have a long life ahead of me.”

To which I have been prone to exclaim aloud,

“Uh. No, you don’t!”

But to enlarge on my earlier, positive premise, I am looking forward to the years still remaining to me, and I have set a goal to, before I pass from this earth, gaze upon the face of my 3x (count ‘em) …great great great grandchild!

End of blog,

… but a ‘long sight’ from the end of me!


By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary," Vol. 37. Copyright pending

If you would like to copy, share or save, please include the credit line, above
*******************

If you would like to see the titles and access hundreds of my blogs from 2015, do the following: 
 

Click on 2015 in the index to the right of this blog. When my December 31st blog, "The Shot Must Choose You" appears, click on the title. All my 2015 blog titles will come up in the index