The Little Old Lady

"The man who was once starved may revenge himself upon the world not by stealing just once, or by stealing only what he needs, but by taking from the world an endless toll of payment of something irreplaceable, which is the lost faith." Anaïs Nin

According to retail loss prevention experts, the typical American shoplifter is an older white woman. You may have seen her in the shopping aisle near you; that innocent looking old lady with the gray hair and the powder blue sweatshirt with kittens embroidered on it. She's not stealing a loaf of bread because she's destitute and starving. She takes what she neither really wants nor really needs, simply because she can.

What an amazing sense of entitlement that takes. Have you ever noticed that about some older people? How the rules just don't apply to them anymore? How they seem to feel that since they have occupied this planet longer than the rest of us, the world owes them something, and a lot of some things?

Today, I am the youngest I will ever be. And so are you. We are all, if we don't die first, headed toward the golden years of our lives. Those should be years where we get to appreciate the fruits of a life well lived; where we give back to the world with our love and wisdom, helping the younger people who are not so far along in this journey we call life. How tragic if we would fail to create that kind of life for ourselves; that in our bitter disillusionment, we would decide that the world did us wrong and owes us something. That we would steal a little trinket and use it as some sad consolation prize for the life we could have had, but failed to create.

Every day I make decisions that will determine what kind of old lady I will be. The world owes me nothing. But I owe the world something: to be all that I can be. May I never forget that.

Susan