Aging Process - Golden Advices

I just sent my sincere greetings and heartiest wishes for a prosperous year ahead to my two dear family members on their birthdays. I was driven from within to shop around for a card and a gift for them and to show my participation on their special day. I felt happy and satisfied to see them grow old and to have lived so many sound years on this planet.

The two dear personalities were my elder brother and my dad. In relation to these relationships, I just read two most valuable advices which I will earnestly try to act upon from now onwards. Going through a video made from Baz Lurhmann on Youtube to some class of 1999, I came across these golden words:

- Get to know your parents, because you never know when would they be gone for good.

- Be nice to your siblings because they are your best links to your past and are most likely to stay with you in the future

As I had just sent out the cards to my dad and my brother, I was already feeling warmth of these close ties, and thus I took the above words seriously as I pondered over their essence. One person has had selfless love for me and is likely to leave me before I do, while the other person shares the similar memories as that of my childhood and is hopefully going to retain some love for me when my parents are gone.

Surely, my dad has turned 61 and has semi-officially retired from his profession as an Industrial Engineer, his presence as a mentor and a guide seems to carry a heavy emotional value whenever I go about making any of my life's decision.

We seldom realize that our parents have survived through the same rigorous world, struggled through its hardships and challenges and have come out as brave, experienced souls as a result. They are the stockpile of advices and suggestions in our difficult and easy matters, because they have seen similar scenarios unfolding before their eyes when they were of our age group. They can more easily realize the consequences of our actions because as Steve Jobs had put it in his famous address to the Stanford University Graduating class of 2006, "it is easy to connect dots in the future looking backwards."

My brother on the other hand, who turned 25, has been like a friend, a mentor, an accomplice, a advice giver and seeker, and much much more. He was there to understand my emotions and to do an engaging commentary on those, rather than necessarily provide a serious advice as my parents might have done otherwise. He helped me in the past without necessarily hoping for a return of favor in the future, without having that extreme selfless love that nature has instilled in my parents, and without knowing what would become of me in the years ahead. He invested his time, efforts, and thoughts in guiding me to the path of success, as he knew it, just because he knew that I share his lineage, his blood, and is held dear by his parents.

I wish long lives for both of my special relation holders and I hope to gain as much advice from my dad and strengthen as much of the love bond with my brother as I can in the years to come.