Robert Ebsen

I am often complimented on how young I appear for all of my 75 years. Of course, that makes me feel very good.

There are likely many ways that I keep myself young. I eat well, avoiding most sweets, I exercise regularly in my heated above-ground pool, and I am cheerful.

Perhaps the most important way I remain young is to keep the child alive in me. I don’t mean being silly or infantile. I mean reacting to others as if they were kids also.

To me that means being close to everyone I meet, even for the first time. For example, when I meet a new person I tend to engage him or her as if we had known each other before.

Sounds strange, I know, but I believe that after this life, I will meet all my ancestors and other people whom I have encountered during this life.

By extension, the people I meet in this life,  I feel as if I had met before, maybe in another life.

What does all this have to do with keeping the kid in me alive?

The kid in me treats each person I meet in two ways, simultaneously:

First, I react to meeting others as if we had met before, as if I really know them. Therefore, I feel comfortable with them.

Second, I react to meeting others as if we had met for the first time — as one kid meets another kid for the first time, with wonderment, not having previous experiences, expectations or prejudices about the person.

Have you shared my experience of meeting someone new and then, within seconds, thinking “I have met this person before — somewhere”?

Who knows?  After all, what do we really know about this infinite universe?

Try it. Try talking to someone new. Try to believe that you might have met him or her before, and let the kid in you take over.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com