A well-known comedian, George Carlin, offers the following 11 suggestions for staying young.

How to stay young

€ Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

€. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

€ Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

€ Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next country; to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

€ Tell the people you are fond of how you feel at every opportunity.

€ The tears happen. Endure, grieve and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

€ Keep only cheerful friends.

€ Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them.

€ Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever.

€ Enjoy the simple things of life.

€ And always remember: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Now you know how to do it! Keep that list on your refrigerator and it just might work!

I'm going to give it a try myself.

Dorothy Nelson lives and writes in Auburn