I'm only days away from starting to hand out my new "business card", and so my thoughts turn to Henry Miller whose book "Sextet" contains an essay "On Turning Eighty". What better way to spend time than learning life lessons from wise people who are closer to the end than the beginning. Miller’s short essay is full of insight from someone who has already finished the maze.
I also found the above audio recording but I was pretty pissed off by the reader's voice which is almost as crappy as my own German accent; so instead of feeling you've just answered another marketing call from Bangalore, you may wish to read along from the beginning of the text:
"If at eighty you’re not a cripple or an invalid, if you have your health, if you still enjoy a good walk, a good meal (with all the trimmings), if you can sleep without first taking a pill, if birds and flowers, mountains and sea still inspire you, you are a most fortunate individual and you should get down on your knees morning and night and thank the good Lord for his savin’ and keepin’ power. If you are young in years but already weary in spirit, already on the way to becoming an automaton, it may do you good to say to your boss — under your breath, of course — “Fuck you, Jack! You don’t own me!” … If you can fall in love again and again, if you can forgive your parents for the crime of bringing you into the world, if you are content to get nowhere, just take each day as it comes, if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical, man you’ve got it half licked.
It’s the little things that matter, not fame, success, wealth." Continue to read here.
"On Turning Eighty" - the book also contains a beautiful essay on "First Impressions of Greece" - is a wonderfully fascinating read on the perspective that eighty years gives you. Just don't set the house on fire as you blow out the candles.
