Seventy:
My sense of the whole thing is how lucky I have been. You name the aspect of life, and I've been ridiculously fortunate. Not deserving. Lucky. There are many maybe luckier....but given the alternatives....
There is this one thing.....being a mammal.....just about the time one has managed to figure out a few things, they plan on dragging me, and not just me!, every one of the other mammals...some earlier, some later.....Strikes me as quite old testament.....if Jesus had been running the show from the start, he would have thought up a better plan......and this Heaven business does not appeal, kind of like an interminable Fassbinder movie......I liked the concept of Limbo, but they scratched it.
Albuquerque is just about a perfect retreat.....it has seasons, its pretty cheap for housing, its not to tailored, in the golden retriever type of place as opposed to a fluffy small dog or alternatively a sleep greyhound.....We have a place in Sandia at the base of the mountain about a mile from the tram in the picture, and the skiing was excellent, a little powder, no bad challenges, a view that goes on and on....
In any event, while skiing I listened to two wonderful pod casts, the first re: sound, third coast festival. This one on a great south African jazz trumpeter, and the struggles against apartheid and music....If you don't like it, I owe you lunch. If you do, you by me a coke.
The second is also improbable for classical types like myself: all songs considered. They manage to find and play a wide very interesting weekly broadcast, no commericals, etc. I see that Ira Glass, one of the greats in radio, is the relative of Phillip Glass, and he interviews him....Highly recommended.
At any rate, back to 70...as yet I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, white light, etc.....but I'm happy in the tunnel. As soon as an epiphany hits me I'll inflict it on this site....The one thing that seems clear is that the idea of retiring at 55 is somewhat ludicrous unless one has a second career in mind, but 70...that makes some good sense. There are a lot of things to learn before the time runs out.
