Apple Buggers and Tomato Killers

There is this thing about Monty Python which affects me in ways I don’t understand. First of all, it makes me very happy. It’s not just the shows and movies; even reading about their lives makes me happy. Just look at them:

I guess I envy how at 70 year of age, their lives seem so fulfilled to me. They spent it doing something remarkable; they spent it breaking the common ordinary boundaries and setting up new ones and they forever imprinted themselves in people’s memory. And on top of that, you feel nothing but pure utter respect for them. Isn’t it amazing to have lived that sort of life?

I never found 70 years “Old”. I thought 70 years was common and something like a 100 years was old. But after reading about their lives and experiencing deaths of people I know, it feels lucky to live up to seventy. Seventy has a fifty in it – half a century plus a score. Seventy is 30 years more than 40. At seventy your children can be around forty (how cool is that? it’s like you’re always around for your kids even when they have their own grownup kids).

And look at them in their seventies - still silly and young. They joke around; they walk around; they live and keep doing things that they want to do. That is quite close to living a dream life.

HOW DO THEY DO IT? HOW CAN THEY STILL BE SILLY? I WANT TO BE LIKE THAT

The truth is I don’t think I have ever been exposed to old age before. I have been exposed to 40s which means onset of bone and joint problems which kind of disabled you to do much except rest. 40s was the onset of a sedentary lifestyle. It’s the age where you find yourself unable to do things not because you don’t want to, but because you can’t. But then I saw the Pythons who, even at 70 years of age, are willing to do a live ten day show to make everyone laugh (and earn money of course) and do what they are so good at.

And let’s not forget the laughter in their lives. They have it, they spread it and they earn money with it. That is probably what I envy the most about them. They earned a living by spreading laughter. How amazing is that?

Of all the Pythons I think I envy Michael Palin the most. He has never been afraid to do silly things even on TV, he has travelled the world and he has been married to the same woman for almost 50 years and has experienced the bliss of a safe happy family home for his entire life. He spent his life doing what he wanted to do and enjoyed it.

What great luck is it to have lived a life that seems that good and fulfilled eh?