NOT MY WORK - please see endnote. thanks :)
if i had my life to live over, i'd dare to make more mistakes ... next time, i'd relax. i would limber up. i would be sillier than i have been this trip.
i would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. i would keep later hours. i would have more sweethearts. i would go to more circuses and less meetings. i would take fewer things seriously.
i would take more chances, climb more mountains and swim more rivers. i would eat more ice cream and less beans. i would perhaps have more actual troubles, but i'd have far fewer imaginary ones.
i lived sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day. oh, i've had my moments, but if i got to do it over again, i'd have more of them ... in fact, i'd try to have nothing else. just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
i've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a raincoat, a spare tyre, loose change for the phone, a hat, a handerchief, a parachute !. next trip, i would travel lighter than i have.
if i had my life to live over, i would pay less attention to people who teach tension. in this modern world of specialization we naturally have a superabundance of individuals who cry at us to be serious.
in a world in which practically everybody else seems to be consecrated to the gravity of the situation, i would rise to glorify the levity of the situation. for i agree with will durant that "gaiety is wiser than wisdom."
as g.k. chesterton once said: "angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly”.
(note: there have been many versions of this work. this one is from the readers' digest, october 1953 issue, and is attributed to don herold (1889-1966), author and humourist). hope you liked it. mig. 