Time to do the communist central committee thing and come up with a five-year plan. Getting old, you realise life is running out, and careful thought is needed when planning what you would like to do with whatever years you have left.
My starting point is assessing where I am, what I would like to achieve, and what means do I have to achieve goals in the time available. My situation is not good, but I tell myself it could be a lot worse. I have greater freedom than many, no armed drones chasing the grand kids, and don’t expect to die of starvation. The question becomes: what can I leave behind when my time comes? What do I have that could be useful to others? In my case, and this would be the case for many older people, what I have is life experience. I’ve had an interesting life, and have confronted and overcome situations others could be facing and be unsure whether it is even possible to survive. The rate of male suicide is a national disgrace made worse by the fact there is little evidence the government is at all interested in doing anything about it. This is important to me as I’ve lost count of the number of times I came dangerously close.
My starting point is assessing where I am, what I would like to achieve, and what means do I have to achieve goals in the time available. My situation is not good, but I tell myself it could be a lot worse. I have greater freedom than many, no armed drones chasing the grand kids, and don’t expect to die of starvation. The question becomes: what can I leave behind when my time comes? What do I have that could be useful to others? In my case, and this would be the case for many older people, what I have is life experience. I’ve had an interesting life, and have confronted and overcome situations others could be facing and be unsure whether it is even possible to survive. The rate of male suicide is a national disgrace made worse by the fact there is little evidence the government is at all interested in doing anything about it. This is important to me as I’ve lost count of the number of times I came dangerously close.
I don’t have wealth, but running a program for at-risk and homeless youth, my service had a sixty-three per cent positive outcome rate. Official federal government figures. Why? I think it’s obvious because as a teenager I had been homeless, and very much ‘at risk.’ I would have died fifty-four years ago were it not for a man out looking for a boy. There’s one piece of work just there, what I know about waking up shivering in a doorway when you expected that to happen in a warm bedroom.
Today I was drawing up a list of books I could write. A family member said I should write one on philosophy, and I laughed and replied I’m not smart enough. Maybe the truth is I couldn’t be bothered, as it would be a lot of work. But does it need to be? I would not be writing as others would, using big words and name-dropping other thinkers, effectively building an academic text to impress other academics. I came up with five books. Target would be one a year, so five years.
Also. I added another little essay I found hiding on my Hard Drive. It’s called ‘The Street Boy and the Mirror of Negation” and is a version of “Thomas and the Mirror of Negation.” I can’t remember which came first, but it’s different enough to be posted as well.