My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.
- Proverbs 3:1-2
The righteous perish,
and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.
Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.
- Isaiah 57:1-2
“Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.
- Isaiah 65:20
The New Boilerplate
My wife filled a small book with “Angel” on the cover. It was hidden with a box of crafting things. On 18 July 2025, I thought I had posted the last of these. But this little angel book held a prayer, followed by 71 quotes. So, the “with a little help” series is back in business for a while. And it will be fun for me. She did not attribute any of the quotes. The first quote was from James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the USA. The next one was disputed, with some thinking it originated with Teddy Roosevelt and others saying Fred Astaire. After the prayer, these might be on the lighter side.
Her quote
“The great comfort of turning forty-nine is the realization that you are too old to die young.”
- Paul Dickson
The Discussion
Paul Andrew Dickson (1939-present) is a freelance writer, of mostly non-fiction books. A big baseball fan, he wrote several books about the sport. He wrote several versions of the “baseball dictionary’, being called the Noah Webster of baseball. He appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to promote his book, The Official Rules, which explains Murphy’s Law and other such euphomisms. His other interests are history and the English language. He is credited for the contrastive focused reduplication of “word word.” For example, “He used that word, you know, not THE word, but the word word.”
Note: I mentioned Murphy’s Law, and there may be some people in the world who have never heard of Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law is “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Somewhere in my hundreds of books is an entire book of Murphy’s Laws. Yes, you can take Murphy to the nth degree. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible moment.
Of course, my wife did not write this list until after she was beyond 49. We don’t think about such things until we are much older.
When my wife knew she was about to leave this mortal coil, she made the statement that she wished she had allowed us to talk about it.
My wife rarely allowed us to talk about what happens to our things once we are gone. I got her wishes taken care of, but it took forever to draw that out.
But not until I read this quote did I realize that this was “the” age, I mean the “age age.” That age that once you cross it, you are no longer young.
But when we get to Heaven, we might be there ten thousand years, and we have not aged a day. Our entire lifespan on earth will be less time than blinking our eyes in Heaven.
I have toys left by the boys that are 49 years old.
It’s just a number.
If God gives me five more good years or twenty-five more good years or more, I want to spend each of them glorifying God.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory
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