MY MAJOR PASSION IN LIFE

Perhaps, one of the fun things we people here on earth love indulge in is to follow a hobby.  A hobby helps make living and what accompanies living on this planet bearable. 

At one or the gatherings I attended some time ago, I fell into chatting with some guests while we were having cocktails waiting for dinnertime. Most often, the talk gravitated to the different hobbies one pursues and nurtures.  One gentleman loved expensive motor vehicles especially the ones from Europe. He said that he had to build another garage at the back of his property to accommodate additional cars had had just bought. Another said that with the rise in crime nowadays he thought of collecting firearms, an assortment actually of handguns and shotguns.  And admitted investing in these firearms for they do not come cheap. Among the ladies present the usual collection that they shared were collecting signature handbags or clothes.

When there was a lull in the conversation, quite a few who were close to me turned to me and asked point blank “And what is your hobby Tony…girls? Ha “the laughter was welcome for me since it relieved some tension because my answer was a dull “I actually have no significant hobby to talk of. You were during my bachelorhood I collected first edition Jazz records especially in the genre of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and the other big bands like Stan Kenton.”  And what happened, asked one.

I must confess as I got married and began to raise a family I had no more extra cash to pursue the buying of these Jazz records and so I just abandoned the idea.

There followed another lull.  Then another asked me whether I liked to listen to music via YouTube since it is available to anyone free of charge. And I said I did listen occasionally but not on a regular basis.

“So, you mean, Tony, you have no hobby, nada zilch, and nil?”

I smiled, took a gulp from my double scotch drink and said, “I hope you will not make fun of this my answer: 

I collect people.”

As if all around me who were earlier in animated conversation in their exchanges of hobbies and collections to a man  suddenly fell silent.  “People?”

As I begin my journey to the twilight years which I am happy to relish despite some health issues, I have come to the realization that collecting material things like guns, houses, cars, and the like though ennobling to a point, do not really last very long.  Like any material things on earth they either rot, become obsolete, become a burden on the pocketbook and sometimes the cause of enmities among friends and relations.

Yes, material things are just that. Material.  They were created by God to last only that long.

Collecting people, through acquaintances, friendship and business dealings is much more rewarding because people, (humans) do mellow as the years go by, and their friendships are enriched while they too age like good wine.

My wife and I can count a number (not too many) of friends we had met and do cherish over the decades and are still around to give us joy as we in turn give them joy.

And with the prayer and hope that God will still bless us with more years, we are sure that these cherished persons will be the reward we shall have earned while here on earth.

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