Worth Doing

​Worth Doing
I must have too much time on my hands.  I just looked up “what is the Australian male life expectancy?”  Apparently, it is 80.7 years (female is 84.9 years).  It did not say 80.7 years 4 days, 6 hours and 19 minutes so (and this sounds morbid) in working out how long I had left I could only work out a rough estimate.
The thing about averages too is that they are averages.  Some are shorter and some longer.  Dean Mercer was way young.  My dad was 97.  So I thought I would do an estimate of my time by numbering the days.  This is all speculation though.  I do not know how long I have.  I could go in the next minute, or live to 100.  I am 62.9.  Based on the average I have 17.8 years left.  If I multiply that by 52 for weeks it is 925.6. and multiply that by 7 I have 6,479.2 days.  62.9 years or 22,895.6 days are already gone.
Why think about this sort of thing?  I am not one to be an all work no play person.  There are a number of veg days and something I insist on for myself - rest days.  About 925.  Just discarding them I have about 5,553 workdays which will include a number of “play days.”
In reality it gets less and less.  Also as one gets older (and believe it or not I have found this even for me) a person can do less.  I have found that even at the place we are staying for our holidays, I huff and puff more going up the three flights of stairs.
Yet I read something recently that made me chuckle, but the more I consider it the more I consider it true.  It was said, “anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”  I guess the older I get the less inclined I am to think “I will do it myself.”  Also, there may be too much to do myself if I am to get done what is in mind to do.
The important thing to me is that it gets done.  They reckon the huge coal trains that have a couple of engines at the front are there to get the thing going.  After that they are not as crucial.  The hardest part of anything is starting.  I found that in sailing.  Once we were moving corrections could be made more easily.  It really is why I find the saying “anything worth doing is worth doing badly” pertinent.  It has been started, and corrections can be made.
I am also a believer in it does not matter how many it takes to do a task as long as the task is done.  That is actually more reassuring as I get older.  I am one man but I may only be able to achieve three quarters of what I once did.  Add someone else the same and there is more than enough to achieve the task.  Maybe I am only capable of 20% of something.  Five of us can do it.  Maybe not ideal, but the job is done.
I guess I am looking to justify my worth.  What gets me is so often older people are regarded as having reached their use by date.  To me, nothing could be further from the truth.  Older people can bring a lot to the table.  Physically they may not be what they were, but collectively heaps can be achieved.