Each day there’s always something new.

I must have known that years ago, but didn’t pay it much attention, because I was younger, and you know how young people are, I was distracted by life. I didn’t need to think about it because I was living it.

Age and retirement lets me slow down enough to see what I know and be aware of it.

That must be why people say, “Wisdom comes with age.”

It’s just that then we have time to realize things.

Things become so clear and obvious they become clichés.

We can list our lives that way, make our own clichés, mix them interchangeably.

“Live while you’re alive.”

“Bloom where you’re planted.”

“Seek and ye shall find.”

“Stop complaining.”

When complainers complain, “There’s nothing new,” we can continue the dialog.

They say, “I was sitting in the same chair yesterday.”

You say, “That was yesterday.”

When they say, “Same old same old,” you can say, “Look at your watch. The hands move.”

When they say, “Been there done that,” you can say, “Do it better.”

You can say, “For example, after my operation and I was re-learning how to walk, I climbed the thousand steps to Coit Tower and everyone was amazed including me.”

They say, “That was you.”

You can say, “Could be you.”

They say, “You sound like a cliché.”

I say, “Clichés crystalize the moment. Every life is full of jewels.”

They say, “Is that what you taught your students?”

I say, “That, and more.”

They say, “Can I be in your class?”

I say, “You already are.”