Perspective Of Age

Smudges on my windows?  Care? of course not, they are signs that a little person was here.  Windows are easy to clean but I may just leave the hand prints as a reminder that I had visitors.  Window smudges are just a metaphor for the perspective that comes from decades of living.  So many things that once trouble me are of no concern in this decade of life.  Sorry that I'm old?  No, surprised that it happened so fast 😊, but old age is a privilege that many are denied.  It is fascinating to have lived so long that I've gotten to see how life developed for those with whom I grew up...many surprises I must say, with both successes and failures.  The writer and humorist, Garrison Keillor, wrote the following about being "of an age" published in The Writer's Almanac yesterday.

"My birthday is this week, which I mention by way of saying, “Please. No gifts.” My love and I went through major downsizing in January and we are pretty much done with Things now, even a picture of a wilderness lake taken by you or an inspirational book that could change our lives. My life is good enough. Every day is incredibly precious. When you reach 77, you’ll feel the same way. It’s a shame that a con man is in the White House as the Arctic is melting and white nationalists are shooting up our cities, but we’ll be okay, we just need a Trexit vote next year.

"Pharmaceuticals would’ve enabled Dostoevsky to retire from writing agonizing novels and switch over to light comedy in his old age and Thoreau to leave Concord and move to New York and find a girlfriend. He went out on a cold rainy night to look at trees and caught bronchitis, which agitated his TB and he went into a steep decline. As he lay dying, his aunt asked if he’d made his peace with God, and Henry said, “I was not aware that we had ever quarreled.” So he had a good last line, which many people don’t, but think what he and his girlfriend could’ve done with thirty more years"

   So it is in my dotage living in the land of grief...life is good.

Takk for alt,

Al