Shall we live for today?

May be our last ride on the trail for the season. A couple asked if we wanted to have a picture of us together, so we took advantage of the opportunity. I had stopped for a picture of the magenta flowers that have sprung up by the side of the trail. Lovely!

So, once again, I got to thinking(I know it is scary) as I made my decision to go for a bike ride instead of meeting the women in the neighborhood at the pool for coffee and donuts this morning. I thought about how they say you can live your life for today, or you can life it for tomorrow.  The implication is that if you live your life the way you want( assuming recklessly) today, then you won't have a very good tomorrow in your life ahead. 

The more I thought about that, though, I realized that isn't necessarily true. Let's assume instead that you enjoy your life that is lived on the "sensible path".  Let's say that you really do prefer to eat the healthy bran muffin over the sugary donut and the grilled salmon over the steak. You would prefer to get out for an invigorating bike ride rather than sit around and chat for a few hours (we just all saw each other a few days ago). 

The point is, we can really prefer a healthy lifestyle and not feel that we are being deprived of the "better things in life" as some people would lead us to believe. This provides us with, not only good living today, but a predictably great old age to enjoy as a result.

So when I hear people say,"You are missing out on all the delicious fat and sugar and not having the fun of eating out all the time".  I say,"Hog wash!" Some of us really don't think that is the good life. Yes, I really do prefer to go to bed with my teeth flossed and would hate not to. Getting my eight hours sleep really does make me feel great the next day. These "boring" routines others prefer to forgo are what allow me to have the best at both ends. There is only one thing I don't like to do today that I would skip if I could, washing my hair every day. Now that is a bore.