Twenty Twenty...Six?

A sort of Doppler shift as the first quarter recedes behind us

Yeah, it’s been a while. For a while, I wondered where the muse had gone. Then, the holidays arrived. The first evidence was that huge spider plastered to the side of a kind of Mac-mansion in Lake Oswego, on the route between my house and church. Some fake macro-spider webs were scattered around the yard too. A bag of mini-chocolate bars appeared on the kitchen counter. In over seven years, not a single trick-or-treat-er has found their way to the end of my cut-de-sac. At one point, there were both my wife, with a massive sweet tooth and my son, who can eat anything in any quantity and remain pristinely svelt, to consume the ceremonial candy; now he’s off at college and I reluctantly do my part in making that bag disappear over the following month. Just as the bag approaches empty, it’s time to begin planning a Thanksgiving meal. Interestingly, we have moved beyond turkey, to standing rib roasts on high holidays. No particular reason, other than the fact that we rarely otherwise allow beef to cross our threshold (hamburger excepted). This year I spent some serious time meditating on the topic of giving thanks. Insofar as there was so little on the national and world stage about which to be optimistic, I was fortunately able to turn my attention to things far closer to home and identify a number of persons and social developments in my own life for whom I am increasingly thankful. I successfully transitioned from doom-scrolling to a broad variety of interests far more uplifting than politics, which improved my general state of mind greatly. I found solace in the amazing ever-accelerating emergency of solar and wind energy sweeping across the world, even the US, in spite of our Orange Emperor doing his utmost to resurrect the favor enjoyed by the 20th century’s dominant energy source. This topic synced with a flicker of hope for the world’s warming trend as non-combustible sources of power are softening the reckless pursuit of ever-more remote sources of oil to exploit around the world. It’s ironic that simple economics of relative cost is driving the shift towards renewable power sources over 50 years after the first Earth Day where we imagined ourselves reaching for a more exalted posture towards all things natural as we began to see the death of biodiversity rear it’s ugly head and plastic garbage appear in the most remote places on earth. What started as awareness of pollution and toxicity of modern practices (remember Silent Spring) morphed into a realization of ozone depletion, rising atmospheric CO2 levels, accelerating warming trends around the world, an alarming recession of glaciers and polar ice, rising sea levels actually driving populations out of coastal lowlands in Oceana, SE Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

I’m waiting for the water to begin lapping at the edge of the lawn at Mar-a-Lago and a few of those golf courses in vulnerable places around the world, but I digress…

I was a child in the 60’s, a teen in the 70’s, a young adult in the 80’s and a rising professional in the 90’s. I turned 40 at Y2K and the world didn’t screech to a halt, in spite of the missing digit in the world’s clocks. Crossing the turn of the century more or less coincided with the dawn of consumer cellular connectivity, computers becoming nodes in the internet (Al Gore invented it, as I recall) which has since spread to every corner of the globe, has spawned a “dark side”, crypto currency and AI powered platforms that do far more than simply browse the internet. Artificial intelligence has the capacity to radically accelerate our ability to answer heretofore virtually impossible questions about the fundamental nature of life and the universe. Humans, ever the clever exploiters of technology, have quickly conquered the art of lying in every media, attaching naked bodies to the heads of politicians, celebrities and little children and every other conceivable form of deception aimed at separating you from your wallet, your privacy and your integrity and identity. Having made it to the turn of the century at 40, I felt like I had accomplished something, only to enter the “oughts” with a dawning disillusionment about where things appeared to be headed in the beloved profession to which I had sworn an oath as I graduated from medical school. By the “teens” I became frankly and increasingly disaffected from my beautiful life and career and I watched in horror as it all slowly fell apart over about 8 years. This happened in spite of strenuous efforts to understand the why of it, employing some highly educated and paid consultants in the process. I attempted to pivot towards more entrepreneurial interests and then absorbed a triple-whammy; COVID, personal illness and disability, and the discovery that the door out of career doesn’t easily swing back the other direction.

So, we are now half way through the 20’s, entering the second quarter of the century and I find myself squarely in retirement, in spite of my best efforts. Having reluctantly accepted that reality and struggled with the lack of preparedness and confusion over finding new meaning and relevance, recent events have transpired to allow me to discover a new tribe(s), a new way of thinking, new enthusiasm, new projects and a modicum of motivation to pursue them. It seems quite curious, even almost unbelievable that I would experience this in the midst of a time in history where tectonic shifts are occurring in how the world relates to itself, and not in a good way.

I must say, this has not been an immaculate conception; bruises, blisters, tears and periods of dark foreboding accompanied my long, strange trip into the present and potentially into the future as well. I did some sustained, confusing and exhausting work to find clarity out of utter fog. Still, I find myself repeatedly gobsmacked with the realization that it is, in fact, 20-twenty SIX, the dawn of the second quarter of the century. In all likelihood it will be the last quarter-century I will experience. I’ll be surprised to see 2050, and I’m not all that sure I want to, particularly if the most dire predictions of the climatologists come true. Negotiating the intricacies of Medicare and Social Security made me realize that retirement is not for sissies. Realizing that my time here is finite, possibly even brief by comparison to what’s in the rear-view mirror, I have some decisions to make and a nascent list of goals to accomplish. I think perhaps that the single most significant accomplishment has been that I am back to looking forward, rather than backward. Whatever happened to me happened; there’re no do-overs and it’s high time to move on and get after those tasks at hand. If old age and senescence are ahead, I think I’ll do my best to ride them down like a range-rider rather than sit in my recliner watching and waiting for signs of decline to take over. Where-ever you are, I wish you a similar paradoxical sense of hope, optimism and adventure as you ride into and through this quarter-century, as well as the second quarter millennium of our beloved country, bruised and battered as it presently is...!