New Year
Like everyone, I wish you a healthy and prosperous 2006.
What that means will not be the same for everyone.
I am 65 and am discovering that the decade of the 60s is when whatever dormant malignant process has been crouching in your system, perhaps since your parents' egg and sperm cell met, is likely to show up and give you a run for your money. If you make it through your 60s with no major upheavels, you have a pretty good shot at an decent old age.
Now, despite longevity in our culture having reached into the late 70s, dying in one's 60s is nothing to complain about. That's something of a shock, not only because our culture treats death as an unexpected insult, but because one never seems to get quite used to being old. Most of my friends my ag refuse to call themselves old. Why, I don't understand. I think old is good, a sign of success. And it even offers the possibility - possibility, not certainty - of wisdom.
What I hope for myself in 2006 is deepend wisdom and greater tolerance. Tolerance for others, but - and this likely translates into tolerance of others - especially tolerance of myself.
What would it take for me to stop responding to my wife as I have for decades when she issues me an order? It would take my understanding that she is simply stating what she wants from me, and I have the freedom to respond as I wish. But because I have not yet - aeons beyond my childhood - resolved my feelings about being bossed around by my father, I still bristle and worse when she gives me orders. I know she does that because that's what she learned from her mother - to direct, not request - and when I see her do it with her office manager I understand.
We'll see. I have made this resolution many times.
As for wisdom, that has to do with loving reality and eschewing illusion.
When the candidates for major office emerge in the next several months, will I remember that they are people like me, filled with ambiguity and ambition that colors their behavior? Or will I rant at their bullshit and hold out for some perfect being?
That, too, depends on whether I can forgive myself for chasing illusion and coveting approval.
So first we'll see whether some malignant process shows itself. The time is, of necessity, closer. If not, perhaps I will have a chance to grow in wisdom.
Stay tuned.
What that means will not be the same for everyone.
I am 65 and am discovering that the decade of the 60s is when whatever dormant malignant process has been crouching in your system, perhaps since your parents' egg and sperm cell met, is likely to show up and give you a run for your money. If you make it through your 60s with no major upheavels, you have a pretty good shot at an decent old age.
Now, despite longevity in our culture having reached into the late 70s, dying in one's 60s is nothing to complain about. That's something of a shock, not only because our culture treats death as an unexpected insult, but because one never seems to get quite used to being old. Most of my friends my ag refuse to call themselves old. Why, I don't understand. I think old is good, a sign of success. And it even offers the possibility - possibility, not certainty - of wisdom.
What I hope for myself in 2006 is deepend wisdom and greater tolerance. Tolerance for others, but - and this likely translates into tolerance of others - especially tolerance of myself.
What would it take for me to stop responding to my wife as I have for decades when she issues me an order? It would take my understanding that she is simply stating what she wants from me, and I have the freedom to respond as I wish. But because I have not yet - aeons beyond my childhood - resolved my feelings about being bossed around by my father, I still bristle and worse when she gives me orders. I know she does that because that's what she learned from her mother - to direct, not request - and when I see her do it with her office manager I understand.
We'll see. I have made this resolution many times.
As for wisdom, that has to do with loving reality and eschewing illusion.
When the candidates for major office emerge in the next several months, will I remember that they are people like me, filled with ambiguity and ambition that colors their behavior? Or will I rant at their bullshit and hold out for some perfect being?
That, too, depends on whether I can forgive myself for chasing illusion and coveting approval.
So first we'll see whether some malignant process shows itself. The time is, of necessity, closer. If not, perhaps I will have a chance to grow in wisdom.
Stay tuned.
posted by Blayney at 3:25 PM
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