The years from late middle age onward are also marked by a steady erosion of ambition. The cause isn’t so much a loss of drive as a growing realisation that you aren’t going to change the world after all. You’re just going to die and be forgotten, like almost everyone else. The knowledge that your existence doesn’t really matter is sobering, but also sort of a relief. It’s certainly changed my approach to paperwork.
— Tim Dowling, from “I’m nearly 60. Here’s what I’ve learned about growing old so far.” (The Guardian, June 8, 2022)
Notes:
- Post Inspired by: “My thirst for life gets deeper and deeper the less of it remains.” — Anya Krugovoy Silver, from “Benediction” in From “Nothing: Poems by Anya Krugovoy Silver”, p. 23 (LSU Press, September 12, 2016) (via Alive on All Channels)
- Portrait of Tim Dowling via The Guardian by Sophia Spring.
Live & Learn 
Well, THIS is a rather fatalistic start to the week….😂😂
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Laughing….
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For me, life didn’t start until 60. I accomplished more in the past ten years than I did the 40 years before. But then I never did set out to change the world.
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Awesome Darlene. Thanks for sharing.
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one thing that’s changed over time is feeling less pressure to do things and spend time doing, things I’d rather not be doing, and not worrying what others think, each year a little more, and that is a peaceful place to land
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That’s it Beth. A peaceful place to land…maybe this is all part of the Big Plan…
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Certainly puts the insanity of paperwork into perspective. But I still believe we change the world whenever we change the arc of someone’s day…
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Change the arc of someone’s day (for the better) – Yes!
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You do it everyday, pal
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Awwww
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I would say the erosion of the ambition to please everyone, to do things you no longer enjoy, to pretend to be someone else… And I agree with Mimi!
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Well stated Dale.
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This face says it all (as they say in Jewish “such ha face”). Pictures of birds, sunrises and landscapes are much more edifying, soothing and uplifting to me
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Me too Michael!
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“The knowledge that your existence doesn’t really matter is sobering,” One always leaves memories in the hearts of those who, love them…and those that will never know the person when they were alive, may run across a drawing, a photo, audio of reading, song or musical recording…the words left to be discovered, the legacy of a scholarship, the endowment of land…all impact.
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So true Christie.
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