No Time At All

     Recently I DVDd a movie of the stage play "Pippen", a musical based loosely on Charlemagne's son.  It was a typical 1970s style play and I remember seeing it here in Peoria many years ago with Barry Williams (Greg Brady) in the lead role and his grandmother was played by Irene Ryan who originated the part on Broadway.  Grandma sings one song and it has now become my new philosophy.

When you are as old as I, my dear
And I hope that you never are
You will woefully wonder why, my dear
Through your cataracts and catarrh
You could squander away or sequester
A drop of a precious year
For when your best days are yester
The rest'er twice as dear...

What good is a field on a fine summer night
When you sit all alone with the weeds?
Or a succulent pear if with each juicy bite
You spit out your teeth with the seeds?
Before it's too late stop trying to wait
For fortune and fame you're secure of
For there's one thing to be sure of, mate:
There's nothing to be sure of!

Chorus:  Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're giving
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all....

I've never wondered if I was afraid
When there was a challenge to take
I never thought about how much I weighed
When there was still one piece of cake
Maybe it's meant the hours I've spent
Feeling broken and bent and unwell
But there's still no cure more heaven-sent
As the chance to raise some hell

Chorus:

Now when the drearies do attack
And a siege of the sads begins
I just throw these noble shoulders back
And lift these noble chins

Sages tweet that age is sweet
Good deeds and good work earns you laurels
But what could make you feel more obsolete
Than being noted for your morals?

Here is a secret I never have told
Maybe you'll understand why
I believe if I refuse to grow old
I can stay young till I die
Now, I've known the fears of seventy-six years
I've had troubles and tears by the score
But the only thing I'd trade them for
Is seventy-seven more...

Chorus:  Oh, it's time to keep livin'
Time to keep takin' from the world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all...