So while those younger may say 'I know' or 'I understand', it is impossible to truly know or understand.  I don't say this in a disparaging way, for I know those younger want to understand; after all, they will probably be one someday.  The things is that those who try to appreciate what it means to be a senior won't really get it until they have arrived at the doors of seniordom.  Be patient, your time will come.

 

I say all this because something struck me the other day.  It has to do with dreams.  Not dreams that you conjure up in the middle of the night while you are asleep, but dreams and aspirations that go through your mind during those times you are awake.  I think most who are younger think that dreams and fantasies end the day you turn 65.  How inaccurate. 

 

The dictionary's definition of a dream is a wild fancy or hope; a condition or achievement that is longed for; an aspiration.  A fantasy is a creative imagination; an unrestrained fancy; an imagined event such as a daydream.  Except perhaps for a baby, those words and their definitions apply regardless of age.  Those who are seniors still have their dreams and fantasies covering as many topics and subjects as they did when they were younger.  Granted they are tempered with reality, knowing that most of them will never come to be, but they continue to exist.

 

Whether it is hitting a drive on the golf course 300 yd. or enticing that good looking man across the room, those dreams and fantasies live on.  They allow us to escape the moment of reality and find solace in what could be were circumstances different.

 

Those moments are as private as they are for those who are younger.  Seniors don't forget the rules of the game that says you would be laughed at, scoffed were you to reveal your dreams and fantasies.  Those rules apply to all ages.  So we seniors have our private dreams, we have our secret fantasies and they make living a bit more bearable.

 

The point of all this is to remind those who are younger that they need not worry that their lives will become less as they get older, at least as it pertains to dreams and fantasies.  Those moments of flight from reality will persist, probably until the day their journey here on earth finally ends.