10 good summers
A few years ago, I was sitting in a small back yard jam session with 3 or 4 other folks. I was a nice summer evening and all was fine with the world. One of the other musicians was a good friend, a little over 60 years old. He made a statement that caught my attention at the time and that has stayed with me since. He observed that he hoped to play a little more music that year than in the recent past. He finished by saying, “I’ve only got about 10 more good summers.”
I don’t know all the details but from what I was able to hear he suffered a serious nervous breakdown shortly after that and was hospitalized for some time. I’ve seen him possibly twice since then but as far as I know he doesn’t play at all any more. I guess he didn’t have any good summers left at all, at least in the context that he was using when he made the statement. I’ve often wondered if he effectively ended his musical life because of the stress of worrying that it wasn’t going to last much longer.
So here I am turning 60. In my mind, I already have. I am looking at the world and re-interpreting it through the eyes of a 60-year-old man. Maybe I’ve only got 10 good summers left.
Now I gotta’ take time out for a couple of disclaimers here. First, I have no idea if I will live until June 21 any more than anybody else does. My dad was not a fountain of wise sayings, (he was however, often a fountain of very profuse, eloquent, and incredibly diverse profanity, something for which I have always admired him) but his response to inquiries about the future was often “Hell, I ain’t promised tomorrow.” Nor am I, nor are you. Disclaimer two is that I fully expect to live a little over 100 years and I expect all the summers to be good ones.
Still, the odds shift a little more in the favor of the reaper as the years pass. The terrain gets noticeably more treacherous after 70. Not very many of my family seem to get to make it through the following decade.
60 seems like a good time to take stock and consider what things should be done during a respectable life and which ones are superfluous. 10 good summers is a manageable number. Nobody can really think in any detail about 20 years of life and nobody can possibly foresee what 20 years will bring. There is no sense of urgency, if you embark on a course of action and fail to carry through, 18 or 19 years is still plenty of time to correct your course. 10 years is different. An enterprise postponed is likely an enterprise abandoned at this point. Plus, a decade is short enough that plans can be made with reasonable hopes that the fundamental conditions of life will not be completely altered before the plans can be carried out.
Now 10 years is 10 years regardless of age. I regret that I did not internalize that fact sooner, but maybe it is impossible for the reasons above. Still, I intend to set goals and make plans with no regard to my age. I will proceed based on what I see as the inherent value of certain activities and accomplishments, just as if I had been assigned 10 more summers at age 21, 35, or 50. I suspect that 10 years of well planned effort toward well established goals would be more effective than the 60 years that I have expended to this point. Not promising that, but I can fantasize.
Thus I do not see 10 good summers as a limit or a reason to stress out and fret about a decline to dotage. I see the limit as a way to focus on getting as much reward and enjoyment as possible out of those summers and I will be giving a fair amount of thought to ways and means in the next few months. Suggestions welcome.
I don’t know all the details but from what I was able to hear he suffered a serious nervous breakdown shortly after that and was hospitalized for some time. I’ve seen him possibly twice since then but as far as I know he doesn’t play at all any more. I guess he didn’t have any good summers left at all, at least in the context that he was using when he made the statement. I’ve often wondered if he effectively ended his musical life because of the stress of worrying that it wasn’t going to last much longer.
So here I am turning 60. In my mind, I already have. I am looking at the world and re-interpreting it through the eyes of a 60-year-old man. Maybe I’ve only got 10 good summers left.
Now I gotta’ take time out for a couple of disclaimers here. First, I have no idea if I will live until June 21 any more than anybody else does. My dad was not a fountain of wise sayings, (he was however, often a fountain of very profuse, eloquent, and incredibly diverse profanity, something for which I have always admired him) but his response to inquiries about the future was often “Hell, I ain’t promised tomorrow.” Nor am I, nor are you. Disclaimer two is that I fully expect to live a little over 100 years and I expect all the summers to be good ones.
Still, the odds shift a little more in the favor of the reaper as the years pass. The terrain gets noticeably more treacherous after 70. Not very many of my family seem to get to make it through the following decade.
60 seems like a good time to take stock and consider what things should be done during a respectable life and which ones are superfluous. 10 good summers is a manageable number. Nobody can really think in any detail about 20 years of life and nobody can possibly foresee what 20 years will bring. There is no sense of urgency, if you embark on a course of action and fail to carry through, 18 or 19 years is still plenty of time to correct your course. 10 years is different. An enterprise postponed is likely an enterprise abandoned at this point. Plus, a decade is short enough that plans can be made with reasonable hopes that the fundamental conditions of life will not be completely altered before the plans can be carried out.
Now 10 years is 10 years regardless of age. I regret that I did not internalize that fact sooner, but maybe it is impossible for the reasons above. Still, I intend to set goals and make plans with no regard to my age. I will proceed based on what I see as the inherent value of certain activities and accomplishments, just as if I had been assigned 10 more summers at age 21, 35, or 50. I suspect that 10 years of well planned effort toward well established goals would be more effective than the 60 years that I have expended to this point. Not promising that, but I can fantasize.
Thus I do not see 10 good summers as a limit or a reason to stress out and fret about a decline to dotage. I see the limit as a way to focus on getting as much reward and enjoyment as possible out of those summers and I will be giving a fair amount of thought to ways and means in the next few months. Suggestions welcome.
posted by tickmeister at 8:58 PM
7 Comments:
June 21 is the start of summer, I'll be 60 on Aug. 7. And for many years I have seen Windfield as more of an annual marker than Jan. 1.
Seems that I should be able to spell Winfield by now, but I guess not.
Hmmm... "An enterprise postponed is likely an enterprise abandoned at this point"... I've been thinking about that cabin on the back 40...
"An enterprise postponed is likely an enterprise abandoned at this point." I've been thinking a lot about that idea for a cabin on the back 40....
I just got back from spending a long weekend in an isolated cabin up in northern michigan. In the middle of 60 acres. Some of the best quiet time I've had in a while --- but I must confess a key component was a view. That's my only reservation about the spot you had picked out for the cabin on the back 40 --- true, nicely shaded. But not much to look at... seems like looking around at nature is a big component of wanting to isolate yourself. But I have to remember you get to look out at nature all the time. Anyway, what about putting it somewhere that has at least one semi-inspiring vista --- or a view of 50 feet or more? I suppose putting it up near the top of a hill is not the best idea... unless there's some higher ground with shade...?
That is, if you're still considering that enterprise...
If you move out farther north in that general area, there is a dropoff of 20 feet or so. with a little brush trimming, that could be a decent view. Also, cutting the trees in the immediate are would open things up a bit and supply some building material.
I thought about that project just a few days ago when I went for a walk through that area. Still trying to decide the ground rules about mechanized tools versus old methods. Need to choose between having the cabin versus the the experience of building it. Let's talk more at Tickfest if not sooner. I think that is one of the things that I want to do for sure.
That sounds great. Yes, let's kick around the ideas. What do you think --- any chance of getting a little electricity there?
I'm all in favor of the traditional methods (I say that now, of course) until we get so frustrated that we start hauling out the chainsaws and chopsaws. I'd be willing to give it a whack, though, with a good old-fashioned axe. Like I say, until we realize how crazy that is.
congratulations on the running, by the way...
Yeah, that's a good line. It always seems as if someone 20 or 30 years older than I am would have a completely different self image or a different way of perceiving the world. It doesn't seem to happen, at least in my experience.
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