“We grow too soon old and too late smart.” – Dutch proverb

As I approach my 78th birthday and following a recent puzzling discussion with a woman friend, I reminisced about one of my favorite old jokes:

A guy walking on a beach kicks a bottle and a genie appears. “You have freed me,” said the genie. “I will grant you one wish – anything you desire.”

The guy thought for a minute and said, “My wife has always wanted to go to Hawaii, but she won’t fly and won’t go by boat. So my wish is for you to build a road to Hawaii.”

The genie thought for a moment and then said, “I am sorry. That is impossible. Please pick another wish.”

So the guy said, “OK, I want to be able to understand women.”

The genie looked at him with a puzzled expression and replied, “Now about that bridge – do you want it to be one lane or two?”

So I remained puzzled until one morning recently, when the Portland Press Herald bailed me out and set me free. The solution to my quandary magically appeared in the newspaper’s thought for today: “To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.” – Helen Rowland, American writer.

I am still too soon old but now not too late smart.

Ronald G. Thurston

Falmouth