What is the lesson learned that a tortoise never runs and does little, and lives 200+ years?

In response to last week’s imponderable question, “What is the lesson learned that a tortoise never runs and does little, and lives 200+ years?”, my writing and sailing friend Rich advised, “It just goes to prove what I have always known.  You get out of the hammock at your peril,” to which my PR friend Stan expounded, “If you sit on the couch and watch TV, you can live forever.”   And my equestrian friend

Royce added, “That having a brain the size of a pea, and a life without stress and physicality might not be a bad thing.”

This prompted by temple friend Tracey to add, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again... exercise is bad for you!” and my dad’S beach buddy Bob to counsel, “So much to be said about vigorous exercise.  I prefer gentle isometric exercise while watching a good western movie.”

My cycling friend Ted concluded, “It means that acting like a teenager may actually pay off!! Don't tell my kids!”

My social media friend Mark called out, “Run fast, do lots, and see the world. I’m already becoming pretty useless at 66 anyway.  My hiking friend Kelly added, “It’s better to have a short, interesting life than a long, dull one.  Most of us will get neither really interesting nor really long to describe our lives – although, if you’ve lived past thirty, then I guess you’ve lived long enough to experience most of what life has to offer.”  Kelly reminds of a Billy Joel song “Only the Good Die Young”

My construction friend Henry suggested, ”Regarding the length of life for the Tortoise, I suspect it has more to do with it’s hard shell of protection as opposed to it’s slowness of movement.  We should all have that protective coating, physically and emotionally, to extend our life-time as well.  Of course, the Mac trucks out there may have a different approach on how effective that protective coating is. I’m just saying!”

My sailing from Norm shared, “Sail on - never power.”

My temple friend Vivian noted, “Take life easy and have a lot in a retirement fund,” to which another temple friend Richard replied, “It means the tortoise lived off a really nice inheritance!”

And my sailing friend Kurt offered this help, “I’ll let you know in 146 years.”

Please send me your thoughts about this week's "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":

What could you do with 14+ hours to continuous daylight?

 

Live well...laugh often and heartily.... have a good week and never regret anything that made you smile!

Hal

              

One of my favorite days of the years is this Thu: Summer Solstice.  The longest day of the year.  In Atlanta, that’s 14 hr, 24 min plus another 58 min for Civil Twilight and an additional 72 min for Nautical Twilight (a total of 16 hr, 34 min of light, or less than 7 1/2hr of dark).

                Atlanta Sunrise 5:57 and 6:26     (Civil Twilight and then sunrise)

                Atlanta Sunset  8:50 and 9:19     (Sunset and then Civil Twilight)

In Alaska, it’s not actually dark on Thu.  Check out the time lapse photography….

Thanks to Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin for the inspiration for Hmmm.   I invite you to call or email me to catch up.