of old gas stations and all of us

I have few obsessions.

One I do have is a recurring thought process that races through my mind whenever I pass an old closed gas station. Actually this pattern of thought occurs whenever I pass any old commercial building but gas stations make the best example.

Whenever you see a closed gas station stop a minute and think about what it might have looked like in its hey day. Stop and imagine what it was like on the day when it did the most business in its history. What was it like on the day when the owner thought he had a good thing going?

Stop and think about what happened after that magnificent day because surely things went wrong after that.

Old stock certificates start the same process. Lots of old certificates of defunct companies show bustling plants that are long gone. What happened?

And so it goes with us.

All of us had days in our lives when we were stronger than any other day before or since. Days when we could run farther or faster. Days when we were at our sharpest.

Days that are lost forever as we grow older.

Our best days will eventually be behind us, nothing we can do about that. We need to be aware of those days and work hard enough so that we are not so far off from our peak that we can no longer imagine it.