old man with a wheeled bag

traveling in tram gives you many chances to meet people, today I have met an old guy, suppose he was already 70, short, skinny but with happiness in his eyes, he had a wheeled bag where he had tied flowers.. to walk down the tram stairs seemed to be an obstacle for him so i offered him a help, with smile on his lips he told me that he appreciates my offer that he comes from his weekend house and that he will manage getting off the tram by himself..

after he got off and the doors closed and tram left the station i watched the man slowly walking on pavement with the wheeled bag which he pull behind..

thinking about this old man brought me to ideas known many centuries already, but not everybody want to see them.. how was the life of the old man? he seemed to be happy, he is old now and we cannot talk about categories as 'beauty' or 'sexy'.. what left behind? what is the life when you turn to be 60? your body hurts, you cannot move so well.. what is the sense? and though the man was happy (and many times I cannot see such happiness amongst youth.. this old man probably (as I imagined in my mind) does not spend his time in front of TV, he probably does not go partying, he does not spend his time in shopping malls buying all 'fashionable' stuff

lets say that this old man lives from all the memories, experiences he got throughout his life, he maybe writes a book, maybe he reads a lot, maybe he took the flowers to make his wife (the old lady living with him for such a long time) happy, to put the flowers on a table, while she prepared delicisou meal for him.. he was in the gardern, in his weekend house to take care of vegetables and fruits, to repair the broken window, to cut some wood..

how does the life look like if we spend most of our time on things which scratch the meaning of life just on the surface, if we do not find ourselfs till that time, if we do not give a meaning to our lives, if we just take, but do not give anything.. i understand that life has many phases and there are some we cannot just jump over (there are some we already should pass as well).. but besides this, there 'must' be something you find and will give meaning.. meaning to all this.. sense, reason, call it whatever.. something what gives you a feeling of richness in your soul