It would appear that as we become older we tend to become more depressed and I guess that is to be expected.

Lets face it getting old is nothing to be too cheerful about is it? except for the fact that the alternative is hardly anything to get that excited about either is it?

I guess that it would be too easy to look in the mirror and say ‘times are hard, I am entitled to be depressed’ and yes times are difficult but whether they were difficult or easy lets face it we would still be getting older (with a bit of luck, that is).

It doesn’t really matter how far back we go into the past the world has always had problems and I don’t suppose anybody has ever said ‘yippee I am 65 now, only a few more years and I will be dead’, have they?

But let us at least try and be like the people that we admire, just think for a moment of maybe three people that you admire the most and then try and think of three that you could easily live without.

Is there a common denominator? I expect so and usually it is something along these lines;

1. The people that we want to be around are the people that make us smile, we don’t care how much money they have got, and they don’t care how much (or how little) we have got, they just kind of make us feel warm when they come into our company.

2. And if you have ever had a friend like that who is no longer with us when somebody mentions their name it makes you feel a bit sad and you just say something like ‘Yes, I remember him (or her) they was a nice person, I really like them, I miss them’.

I have travelled quite a lot and I have always enjoyed a drink (ok, no ones perfect) and I know that in England when men stand around having a few beers together and a friend’s name comes up who is no longer with us it is the custom for those present who knew them to raise a glass and drink to ‘absent friends’ that is what we should all want to be remembered as, absent friends, not the alternative.

As we get older quite often our bodies need a bit of help, we can feel at times betrayed by our own bodies.

Sometimes help is not possible and sometimes it is. I accept that our attitude towards others can become strained when we feel that ‘they don’t understand’ (and most likely they don’t) as the old saying goes ‘you have to walk in another man’s shoes to know how he feels’ or (something like that).

This is not about sex or getting rid of your wrinkles, this is about living the best and the happiest life that you can.

We have all seen races where runners have fell over but they got up again and ran and finished the race, they may not have come in first, but they ran, and they finished, where are you going to finish your race? are you going to be an ‘absent friend’ or a non-runner?