Published October 2018
THE “GOOD OLD DAYS” IS NOW- A DECADE
A rabbi, leaving his synagogue one day, noticed three small boys sitting on the steps. One had a toy airplane, one a miniature racing car, and the third a copy of Esquire.
“What would you like to be, son?” the rabbi asked the first boy.
“An airplane pilot” was the quick reply.
“And you?” he said to the second boy.
“A racing driver.”
“What would you like to be?” he asked the youngster with the magazine.
The boy grudgingly dragged his eyes away from its pages and replied longingly- “Grown, sir, grown.” Those of us who are grown ought to appreciate and enjoy the fact that we are grown. One of a person’s greatest needs is to grow, and to grow is really to live. We should worry less about hardening of the arteries and more about hardening of the mind. We should take all that life has to offer and enjoy it fully.
Remember, today and tomorrow are the “good old days” we will miss a decade from now. Remember to enjoy your son’s Bar Mitzvah, your daughter’s wedding, swell with pride at the graduations, make the most of the birthdays and anniversaries. Remember to share in all the happy events of growth, for these years of growth are the best years of our lives.
That is surely what Ecclesiastes had in mind when he wrote: “For if a person live many years, let him rejoice in them all.” (11:8)
Rabbi Alvin Kass
Chief Chaplain of the NYPD