All things in their proper perspective. The older we get the wiser we are presumed to be, having ingested all of life's experiences that fortune or its partner misfortune exposed us to, teaching us lessons along the way, undoubtedly, making us all the wiser for having survived those instances of what the process of life can throw at unwary and often unwilling participants in the game of life.

Wiser we may not particularly become, although we may weigh our options a little more carefully on being confronted with choices to be made. We develop a bit of foresight and consider consequences in favour of simply forging ahead, no holds barred; a reaction more consonant with youth than age.

Some of us become far less susceptible to agitation over events we can have no influence over; we have learned to accept what is often the inevitable, or at the very least have the patience, lacking in our earlier years, to see those events through to their conclusion.

When the conclusion becomes our end of life, we will most certainly have no influence on when, where, how or why. The 'why' portion of it is the only circumstantial certainty universally shared; all living things must perish, their constituent parts becoming the building blocks of other forms of life in a continuous, endless cycle of life and death.

As for me, I am no longer upset, my emotions set to screech-mode over much that happens. The single exception being if harm threatens to visit someone I love. That alone occasions a complete emotional break-down. I don't suppose in that little matter of enduring love and care that I am in any way exceptional.