As I got older I used to be surprised how much there was still to learn. Yes seriously... I really did. Then I got wise and realised that clever people recognise how little they do know. Then I grew out of my intellectual self-analysing phase and just enjoyed being curious! "Be curious" was the lesson I learned from a lovely old guy I once knew, who although well into his 80's, was mentally as sharp as they come. "Investigate things and how they work" was his philosophy.
It was this enquiring mind, coupled with his talents as a tool-maker that lead him to design and make a spinning top. Not any old spinning top but one that would hold the Guiness Book of Records title for the world's longest spinning top! Yes he was purposeful as well. Each day he would be up with the lark and into the local Tesco at opening time, no sleeping in for him. Although he never made a thing about it, Bill's enquiring mind was as fit as it would have been in his youth.
I remember back in '98 driving with him and his younger sister of 78 as as we visited a long lost relative in Essex. They were arguing in the back seat over the details of a similar journey they used to make as children travelling to see an Aunt from their home in Southend-on-Sea. Younger sister thought that she remembered the journey. Older brother Bill knew that he remembered it. Maybe that was the purposeful side kicking in. Why bother to remember all that detail? Unless of course it was to prove his younger sibling was wrong. But remember it he did, as he recalled with amazing detail all the images along the way.
Sadly I lost contact with Bill a few years ago but I'm sure he is still getting up early each morning... is giving himself a purpose for the day....has a "project" on his mind that he is questioning... and is trying to improve on the answers that he is given. Thanks for that Bill.
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