Dear LPG,

I am not sure what day my message will actually appear, so I would like to start it by saying that I am penning it on Tuesday February 5^th and today is my birthday.  So I have decided that I would like to introduce myself with my first attempt at writing something for LPG. 

You can see my initials at the end of the post but suffice to say that I am getting on a bit, and as I began my 73^rd year on this planet I started thinking about what I want to be and were I want to go next in life.

I have decided a little writing and online posting is one thing that I can do and I am putting this on record because I am seeing a few people around me, those I call my friends and who are of a similar age, talking about the fact that there is not a lot left that they really need or want to do.  I find that attitude a bit worrying and want to write down what I said during a conversation I had with one such friend.

I asked him if he remembered what he felt like when he had just left school and started work.  I personally remember the time I spent chasing and catching the person I resolved to marry, being a member of a band for a bit, owning the car that I set my sites on and lots more, and having attained one there was always another to reach for.   I think that we spend time in our late teens and early twenty’s anticipating what we are going to do with our lives and, as time changes the goalposts we regroup and alter our plans as we adapt to those changes but, in my experience and having listened to those friends of mine, it appears that if we are not careful, we can lose the capacity for ambition. 

We need to make sure that that does not happen, so my message goes out to my friends who I wanted to put this on record for, and all the other readers who may be losing momentum in LPG reader-land. 

One of the most important things we possess, no matter how old we are and as long as life leaves us with the capacity to think straight, is the power to dream and aim for those things that we always wanted but have not yet attained, no matter how big or small.  Changing the goalposts goes with the territory; there is no point in factoring in learning to ice-skate if your sense of balance has deteriorated, and attaining the job that eluded us when we were young is not that realistic either, but we all need to maintain our momentum for ambition.  

RB, Brockley