I look at the mirror and don’t know what to say. Give me one reason to smile at my age.
— A reader who is in his late 70s and full of apprehensions.
ell the guy in the mirror to say, “Hello Handsome”. No, I mean it. Whenever he wants, the guy in the mirror can become the most charming guy you have ever met. Just look at his smile, look at the way he looks at you. Life is pouring out of his eyes, spilling out and spreading out to embrace the whole wide earth. He knows the power of that morning smile. He knows the value of that cheeky cheer.
The guy in the mirror is way smarter than you or me. He smugly knows many things the world is struggling to comprehend. He knows the secret of life itself. His laughter should tell you that life, after a point, stays only on invitation, and has to be made comfortable or will suddenly depart. Life is like a shy guest who would rather slip out of the party after the formalities have been completed, after the children are born and have grown up, after hair on the head has receded, after age has caught up and the step is faltering, the wrinkles crinkling, the eyesight unfocused, the knees wobbling. That’s why the guy in the mirror is laughing, see? He knows that life has two purposes for its existence. The first is to fulfil its own programme and reason for being — which is to regenerate its own self.
Boy, life is a bit selfish, like all of us. Its first concern is always itself. It will fill up the body with all the muscles, all the hormones, rare beauty and strength it needs to make sure that you meet a girl, fall in love, have children and they grow up well. Life always shines bright until its private agenda has been fulfilled. After that it really doesn’t know if it should stay on — and if it doesn’t feel comfortable, would rather leave and go home back to where it came from.
So what’s the wisdom of the morning smile? Life doesn’t like to stay in a place where it doesn’t seem welcome anymore. Would you like to stay on in a party where people don’t greet you, don’t make you feel good, don’t care for your presence? Don’t you have some self-respect? Won’t you feel upset and just walk away?
When you make life feel like a welcome guest, make it feel wanted; then it opens up to its second reason for existence. It gives out a string of return gifts to the body it currently occupies — in this case — you. Those return gifts are among the rarest treasures to be ever discovered. They are more precious than the finest gold and jewels available anywhere in the world. When you see a man in his 80s with a spring in his step, smiling and laughing like a child, playing a game of tennis or jogging like a pro, getting admiring expressions from everyone he meets, a man who somehow managed to preserve his health, his wealth, his sanity and his cheer — you know the value of those return gifts. It’s simple, bro.
The most so-called complicated things in this planet are really so simple. Extend a hand of friendship to life. Look at the mirror and say “Hello handsome. I love everything about you. You are so very wonderful. Tell me how can I make your day lovely and memorable.” Go on, say it and see what happens.