Arthur Brooks has written a book about how meaningful the second part of one’s life can be. The widely held belief that it is all downhill in our second season, is just popular misbelief. I share this sentiment and has found much that is worth living for in my second season; the many contributions that I can make and how meaningful life can be. Brooks writes, amongst other things, about Johann Sebastian Bach – one of classical music’s greatest maestros.
“Bach said that the aim and final end of music is the refreshment of the soul. He didn’t say that the aim and final end of all music is just playing as much music and writing as much music as possible,” Brooks reflects. “What that means is that the aim and final end of our work is to refresh the souls of other people and you can’t do that if you’re working out of fear and misery, always chasing harder & faster.”
Translation: When you are young, you have raw smarts; when you are old, you have wisdom. When you are young, you can generate lots of facts; when you are old, you know what they mean and how to use them. Coaching & Mentoring are the superpowers of older persons, and the progress of humanity depends as much on them as on tech start-up’s. I rejoice in that.
So, remember … when working harder, chasing faster & accumulating more, are no longer satisfying – it’s time to smarten up, because it will happier you up…you’ll mine meaningful bitcoins for the soul and find surround sound happiness.
THREE NOTES ON PEACE AND VIOLENCE – FROM THE REAL WORLD
So many things have happened around me in this single week. I share only THREE with you:
ONE
My mother-in-law, whom I have known for 40 years passed away this week. Hers was a life well worth living, and for us a lifetime well worth sharing. I think of her as my Woman in Gold. My son sent me this beautiful observation from his last visit to her:
“I remember her at Amble Ridge; frail and forgetful but peaceful and full of love and happiness.”
TWO
Unfortunately ugliness and batshit crazy people are still around, especially in America. Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent nearly two dozen text messages urging former President Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to aggressively move to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Meadows replied to one of her unhinged messages:
“I will stand firm. We will fight until there is no fight left. Our country is too precious to give up on. I have staked my entire career on this. Thanks for all you do.”
Who do these fucking people think they are, actively seeking to overturn the results of a democratic election?!
THREE
Then there is the ongoing destruction, killing and maiming in the name of Vladimir Putin. Now we are getting more and more information that Russian soldiers are not prepared to continue their [failing] violent assault on the people of Ukraine. An intercepted radio message from one Russian soldier to another says it all;
“Go home – it’s better to be a deserted than fertilizer.”
But let this ‘not blind you to what virtue there is’, [to quote from Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata] and consider this much quoted quote:
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” — Mark Twain