“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.#”

- Herm Albright

Good morning, how are you today?

Good?

Good.

Me?

Today I'm feeling a bit conflicted.

Picture this ... The other day I was leaving Wegmans with my weekly ration of Pringles and Captain Crunch; smiling big and feeling great.

The wind was crisp as it swept up and with a rush I shoved the groceries hard forward and proceeded to ride the cart all the way down the lane to my car. I felt like Leonardo Dicaprio in “Titanic.”

The only thing missing was me spreading my arms and yelling, “I'm king of the world!” The experience was cut short though.

Out of nowhere this woman glares at me and said in a loud voice “Why don't you act your age?” In a split second I was brought back to reality; my ocean turned back into a parking lot and the ship of dreams? Just another wobbly shopping cart.

What does that actually mean? Act your age.

Now, as you know, my journey in life is slowly headed toward the north side of 30, but I still don't know what it means to “act my age.” How am I supposed to act? My only assumption is that now that I'm a man I have to behave in some “grown up” manner, as if my age is suppose to dictate whether or not I can have fun anymore.

Why do people take life so seriously?

Now I will admit that if you're an actual brain surgeon and you're performing a procedure, maybe, you just might want to keep things as professional as possible.

But for the rest of us out here schlepping along I just can't understand all the long faces.

This is the greatest time to be alive, but you'd be hard pressed to find people that would believe that statement. People worry about any little thing that comes their way. If it's winter they worry about the cold, come summer they complain about the heat. Any other time of year we grumble about the government or our jobs. But take a moment to look around and you'll come up with some pretty good examples of why life is good.

There are innovations every day; miracle cures for diseases, major advances in technology, and with the revolution in Botox; you don't need to have a long face, anyway.

This is the first time in the course of human events that they can actually take the fat out of your butt and inject it into your face which sort of gives a new spin to the term turning your frown upside down. Now I don't know what that means for us as a society but I find it fascinating nonetheless.

I think a lot of what keeps us in the blues is that fact that life is so high paced now that if you stop and smell the roses you'll probably get run over by the people jogging through the garden.

All I'm saying is lighten up, enjoy life and always remember that your inner child never gets old.

Auburn native Bradley Molloy's column appears here,

each Sunday in The Citizen.

He can be reached at lovonian@hotmail.com