Dan Morris: Second chance saloons and 99 balloons

​Those who are interested are probably bored of hearing about it by now, so I won’t go into the ins and outs of Big Don’s new administration and what he has already been up to to get heads turning this week.

What Trump’s inauguration has been making me think about though, is second chances.

To have more than one shot at running the most powerful country in the world is very much a big deal, and not the kind of opportunity that comes along to most of us.

Normal life, however, can throw out plenty of chances for a ‘re-do’. Young people are, rightly, given opportunities to retake exams they may have struggled with. With numerous adult training programmes out there, the chance for people who are older to change their career is now better than ever. Parents can be given opportunities later in life to reconnect with long-lost children, and technology has, indeed, helped everyone to get back in touch with any person they regret growing apart from.

The point is, as humans we don’t always get it spot on first time, so it’s usually a good and fair thing when we get the chance to try again.

My dear old gran turned an incredible 99 years old last Sunday. She’s a remarkable woman who has lived through almost a century of the mixed bag of war, depression, hope and progress that the last 99 years have been.

For many of those born in 1926, life was not necessarily comfortable from the off, and my gran certainly didn’t have the easiest of starts.

However, as with many of her generation, this fostered in her a spirit of resilience and optimism that has always stayed with her, and I have spoken of her previously as being nothing less than an immense inspiration to me.

In such a long life, I suspect my gran has been given her fair share of second chances, and I’m sure she would have been much younger than me when she was first wise enough to realise their value.

She’s certainly also seen her fair share of political changes, leaders getting it both right and wrong, and those in power either being given one second chance too many or not enough slack to get the job done. I haven’t asked her, but I do wonder what she makes of ‘Trump round two’.

In her extraordinary life she has been far from alone. My grandfather (who shared her birthday and would have been 100 last weekend) adored her until the day he died. This was at the very sad age of only 58.

I didn’t know him; he passed away before I was born. Though, my dad and his brother have both reliably informed me that this was far too short an innings for such a great bloke – and from everything I’ve heard, I believe them.

In the time since my grandad’s farewell, my gran has been surrounded by a loving family – her two sons, her grandchildren, and, in more recent years, her great-grandchildren.

Her life is hopefully a while from being over (several of her siblings passed the century mark), and it is one that has been richly full for almost three times the length of mine already.

Sometimes, though, I wonder if she would change anything.

I’ve only been on Earth for 37 years, and like most people – if I were telling the truth – there would be plenty of things about my life and how I’ve lived it that I’d consider changing. I wonder if this number multiplies accordingly with your advancing years, or reduces as you make more and more peace with the fact that we’re only here once and it’s better to just get on with it? Perhaps next time I see her, I’ll ask her. Though I already know that her cunning reply will simply be a smile I can interpret as I choose.

It’s important to have the opportunity for a few ‘re-dos’ along the way to help deal with certain mistakes and roadblocks, but I also think it’s important to remember that life as a whole isn’t a dress rehearsal. Getting things wrong sometimes, and learning from them, is part of that. With this in mind, perhaps ‘The Donald’ will finally consider a new haircut to go along with his new White House tenure. In the name of all the bouffants of the world, we can only hope and pray. 

Happy birthday, Mamma! Here’s to another 99…