oad of Roses

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Professor Hamblin, the Baron’s chief advisor, met and educated the Baron and Lady Angela when they were very young. One of the subjects that kept coming up was the pathways of life.

The Professor conveyed to them that the road of life was full of roses. Life appeared to be divided into three parts, the early years or growing years, the adult years, and the senior years. While there were not hard and fast rules regarding one’s exact position in the three stages, it appeared that the level of responsibility decided that point.

School chums and grades were in the first stage. The second stage was a career and marital choice, and the third stage was an opportunity to explore the things that had to be postponed during the earlier times.

“Life is like traveling down a road of roses,” the Professor continued. “In the first stage, the roses are hardly even noticed, in the second stage, the roses are noticed part of the time, and the third stage is really the only time you have to stop and smell the roses and notice their rich color and texture.

“In the first stage, there is a lot of running around with little focus, the second stage has more focus and direction and planned running around, and in the third stage, the person is finally has charge of focus. Time becomes their friend, and foe, during the last stage. If the person in the third stage has to relate to a person in the second stage, there must be a lot of compromise. The third stage person wants to stop and smell the roses and the person in the second stage says, ‘It is alright to stop and smell the roses, just don’t spend too much time doing it.’”

The Professor concluded that both the Baron and Lady Angela would have some problems relating to this and the common man because the common person did not live in a castle and did not have a staff of attendants to care for them. “The more experience that you have talking with people in a very casual setting, the more insights you will develop.”

This quality-of-life question and discussion would come up again as time went by.