Coming of Age
Tomorrow is my 69th birthday, which means I will be starting my 70th year. I have never been a person who cares much about age as a defining characteristic. When I hit 30, 40, 50 and even 60 it was a non-event. I’m not so sure that 70 will be any different for me when it comes in a year. I think it’s fair to say that these days, except for the very young, 70 is not viewed as so very old. I don’t think I’m just saying that because I’m at the brink of that age now. I think it has more to do with the general aging of America and the rest of the world. Everywhere you turn these days, some country or another is raising its retirement age, edging it up closer and closer to 70, not just because of financial and actuarial necessity due to underfunded pension liabilities, but also because 70 is a lot less old than it used to be and it is not so unreasonable that most people can work to that age. My mother died at 100 years old five years ago. When she was 90 or so, about fifteen years ago, she told me that when you reached 70 people resented you as a non-productive drain on society. She went on to say that at 80 people are just so amazed that you’re still alive that you regain some of your respect from them. I may change my mind in the next ten years, but I doubt it. I suspect that anyway you look at it, eighty will still be an old age for someone of my era. I don’t want to talk about ninety because that starts to get into the very old and, more than that, actuarially unlikely and perhaps even personally undesirable. That means that I have ten years to get the rest of my living in.
My friend Frank turns 86 this year and from what I can tell, he is still compos mentis and enjoying life for the most part. Nonetheless, both he and my mother are more exceptions than the rule. I plan to get my living in over the next ten years, not because I plan on dying, but more just to optimize. I feel pretty good at I approach 70, not without aches and pains, but I have enough friends and family that are doing less well as they get into their 70s that I don’t want to take any chances of being less able to enjoy myself. I am smart enough to understand that I am less likely to keep myself in tip top fitness shape than others, but I also know that I seem to have genetics on my side, so I figure I’ve got some more quality time at my disposal.
Part of my program to get the most out of my life includes being able to take on projects around my home as much as I care to. I don’t have a big household agenda any more, but there are always things that come up that need doing and I feel better if I am able to do them. I have no problem leaving things for Joventino to do or calling in Handy Brad to help with things if need be. But I also like taking on projects myself, but to prove to myself that I am still capable of doing it. Today I went to Lowe’s and bought 4 eight-foot pieces of 4×4 treated lumber. I had wanted them to cut them in half to make the transport easier, but these big box stores have a policy against cutting pressure-treated lumber. I assume it has to do with the chemicals released from cutting, but who knows for sure. I managed to fit the four into my Tesla, just barely, but got them home and into the garage. I will cut them to size tomorrow and drill holes in the ends of each piece for rebar stakes, and then set about the task of taking them down the back hillside to lay them out where they are most needed. This is my effort to eliminate the erosion on my hillside DG paths, which incurred some rain damage this month. Kim has been wanting more steps anyway, so its probably all for the best. It’s a rainy day again today, so I’ll try again tomorrow. I already have the bags of DG in the garage for Joventino to lay down on Wednesday. Hopefully the paths will be all fixed this week.
Another part of my go-forward program is to stay mentally active and engaged. I am teaching again this semester, but only once a week. It is the ethics course that I have taught for two semesters in a row, so I feel I have a good grasp of the materials. I still have some work to do to get the methods squared away, especially since I’ll have 48 students this time and that will be three times what I had last semester. Nothing like three times the work for the same pay, right? But its less about the pay and more about having a purpose and giving my week a little bit of structure by teaching one night a week. When I read the news, both political and economic, I do so with an eye towards my lesson plan. Everything seems to relate, and that gives added relevance to my day. I do not have much activity at the moment in my expert witness business, but that is probably just temporary. I am paid better for that work than for teaching, but while that is always useful for paying for our next trip or whatever, I do that work for very similar reasons. It keeps me engaged and connected to the goings on in the business world. The cases range from two that deal with securities lending (used for shorting stocks), two that deal with real estate transactions, one that deals with the theft of confidential information and one that seems to involve all of the above all at once. Three of these cases are relatively high profile, meaning they relate directly to things I might see or read in the papers on any given day. It doesn’t get more connecting than that.
Being so engaged in work activities like these is not unlike doing heavy work in the yard. One does them for the sense of achievement, but one also does them because it all makes the rest of the time, the down time, more sweet. For some reason I am an accomplishment junkie more than anything else. I don’t care about accumulating money. I don’t want any fame or notoriety at this stage of life. And as for happiness, I have a full plate and while never one to refuse more, I do not need any more to feel “happy.” So, there are two things I want at this point. I want to feel good by getting things done. I also want to do the right thing. That is a more complicated affair. Sometimes accomplishment runs afoul of doing the right thing. I won’t deny the possibility that I may have allowed that to happen in the past, but I am very aware of that in the here and now and work hard to avoid it. If there is one thing I have learned in my ethics teaching, it is that everything has moral consequences.
I cannot seem to go a day without stumbling on another ethical conundrum. The latest involves someone I know who is involved in an activity I consider to be reprehensible and wrong. It does not directly involve me and I could easily just ignore it and leave it to others or the system to resolve the issue. But that is the best part about coming of age. You have only so much time to get things done and to do the right thing. I try hard never to avoid either.