Post 377. Artis81.

No matter how I look at it, and I have looked at it from every angle other than from the point of view of a bowhead whale or a Galapagos tortoise, 81 is old. Even when someone says you are a “young 81”, you know that you are old. You can’t get away from it.

I was thinking about an elevator description of what happens when you turn 81. You obviously don’t know what tomorrow, or the year, will bring. Maybe I can relax with fewer responsibilities. Maybe I will develop a condition which will last the rest of my life. In either event, I guess you could say “It’s all downhill from here”.

But my biggest regret about aging is that at some point, you do age out, and when that happens, you most likely (ha!) won’t know what is happening to the world after that. And I want to know. I want to know if the lions will lie down with the sheep, if the Palestinians will break pita with the Israelis, if humanity will figure out how all the world can have the same climate as Addis Ababa with just the right amount of sunshine and water, if everyone will become Jewish (this is the least likely, I know), and if the Nationals will ever again win the World Series.

There’s a lot going on and, even if I can’t be part of it, I want to watch from the sidelines. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Well of course I may be thinking about all of this prematurely. Maybe I will, in fact, become a centenarian and have 20 or so more years to contemplate all of this. And by then, maybe my disgust level will have risen to high, that I will be happy to be on my way.

Things are not in good shape. We have always had wars and, I am afraid, always will. You just don’t want to be caught up, or have your family caught up, in one. But climate change on the level we are seeing it is new, and a population heading in the not too distant future to 10,000,000,000 may be more than the world could handle even without climate change.

Oh, well, one step at a time, as they say. But a step can go in many directions.

Is Art more pessimistic than usual, you might be asking, on what should be a celebratory day? No, is his answer, he just hasn’t had his first cup of coffee yet.