F Market & Wharves, taken last weekendThey call it a midlife crisis and turn it into a joke about blondes and sports cars and gold necklaces but doesn't it really make perfect sense that after a half century of building a life, one would reach a point where revisiting the path is simply inescapable? No one has made it to fifty and not done as much. Many just do it quietly, and they use unemployment or empty nest or time to write as the new lens through which to refocus on the remaining life yet to build. I'll do that too, real soon. 2009 is the year for hope and change. The question, for all of us really, is after that leap into the dark, was it off the high dive, and is there any water in the pool?
8 comments:
but doesn't it really make perfect sense that after a half century of building a life, one would reach a point where revisiting the path is simply inescapable?
Yep.
is there any water in the pool?
Nope. But, hopefully, you'll bounce. You know, like Tigger. Thing is, you know how everything squishes together first before springing back up? Yeah, well, some of us stay squished a little longer than others, and still others of us never manage to quite unsquish properly. I'm not yet sure how I'll end up. I'm still squished.
I better watch where I'm walking, knowing you may be standing at the corner, waiting for the light, or the F-Line.
You don't have to leap into the unknown.
You only have to reach an intersection and turn left or right instead of continuing on straight ahead.
The result is less bouncy (or splatty) but can mean just as abrupt a change in life.
My advice? Make your change in trajectory horizontal, not vertical. Ninety degree turns either way.
All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. — Henry Miller
Sound familiar?
BTW, i's not only a half century thing. Happens to me just about every other Tuesday.
Oh, and the blondes are overrated. Brunettes smolder and redheads add spice.
In the immortal words of the Fine Young Cannibals, baby baby don't look back.
Sharp Turn: 1
Jump: 3
Unknown: The difference.
Sometimes maintaining status quo is the biggest risk of all.
And when we see families bombed out in Gaza or killed on drunken NYE roads or impoverished by sudden corporate bankruptcies we are reminded it doesn't matter what choices we make anyway. Outside the reach of our arms, it's all chaos.
I need to stop peeling the onion, stop considering the second-order effects, stop worrying about other people and just jump. Sometimes that is so clear.
And other times it is not clear at all, because the echo effects, the ripples, they do matter. To pretend they don't just because they are often obscured by the fog of happenstance is wrong, is yet another lie.
Always drawing little circles.
i have always believed in pools filled with water. perhaps my biggest weakness. expectations are the key to disappointment.
wow, hi Debbie Downer!
sorry ;)
I don't know. I think if you're having doubts you shouldn't do it, unless someone forces your hand. You can jump later, but you might not be able to get back if you change your mind. On your deathbed, are you more likely to say you wished you'd jumped or you're glad you stayed?
Happy New Year though, and my wish for you is to find clarity and peace of mind.
See the comment I enshrined in the upper left corner of my blog.
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