My columns in the past have often been about the past, not the future.

Well, my kids tell me to quit living in the past and get with the program. And the program is the here and now and the many tomorrows I hope to have.

Believe me, it's not easy to avoid thinking about the times behind us. Our experiences are what make us who we are. But I'm going to try.

No more having to worry about climbing the social ladder and getting invited to myriad cocktail parties; no more having to worry about career paths and promotions and pay raises; no more sucking up to those who we think can help us achieve our goals and who feed our egos.

This business of thinking in the future is already beginning to feel good!

Now instead of dwelling in the past and all my stellar accomplishments, I can put my energies, such as they are, into thinking monumental thoughts about the future.

I can maybe make a difference in helping reform the health-care program that's bedeviling Congress. I can write my congressman and point out that even though I'm 80 years old, I plan to vote in the next election, and I want to know what he or she will do about taxes, the environment and global warming, immigration and poverty in the world, and on and on.

Oh! I'm beginning to feel good!

I'm not going to concern myself with whether my attire is fashionable and keeping up with the latest styles. I don't have to go out and buy new ties that are not color-coordinated with my suits and shirts.

For who can change one thing about tomorrow or clothe himself better than the birds of the air who live for today and have no though of yesterday or tomorrow?

My past habits have always meant brown shoes with tan and brown slacks, black shoes and socks with blues and grays, ties that fit in with my shirt and coat.

To heck with all those things that made me captive with the past. I drink a toast to the future!

To my little grandchildren who dream about castles in the sky and imagine knights on white horses galloping to their rescue from ivory towers. They see beauty in every flower and know that life is all about moving forward, not backward. The future, not the past.

I'm throwing off my shackles of the past!

"Follow me," as Glenn Beck says. Let's hear it for 2010. Let the historians concern themselves with 2009 and years past!

I feel good already!