NOTES FROM THE 8TH DECADE #22

I’M JUST GETTING STARTED

Spring 2014

 

Gone are those “woe is me” feelings believing my best days are behind me, the result of misguided thinking that plagued me the first few years into this eighth decade.   I was convinced it was time to limit my aspiration and dreams, and distraught because I could not imagine a future for myself. My life’s work of the past 35 years was growing old and tired, or so I thought. My attitude was easy to read for those that know me well, and my daughters expressed some concern about my wellbeing.

However gloom and doom are not part of my nature, and optimism and trust are. I eventually found myself engaged in a year-long project, creating a book of drawings and painting – A Paducah Portfolio. Upon completion of the book in November of 2013 I found myself energized and eager to take on even larger projects, without concern about “limited years”. Suddenly my age was immaterial, and I knew I could do whatever it was I wanted to do. I was excited about the future and began making plans for new work, including one or more books of art. I had high hopes for 2014.

I spent the first part of the year working my way through a list of commissions, and although one of the anticipated projects never materialized, I worked at a slow but steady pace on the other (a portfolio of architectural art on Oak Park IL.)  I celebrated my 75^th birthday in May, an un-necessary reminder that I was getting older.  It was also the month I became a “community columnist” for our newspaper, the Paducah Sun. Having been harboring fantasies about becoming more that a hobbyist in the craft of writing for many years, this was a big deal for me, and I promptly began spending more time on the keyboard, revising and rewriting old essays and narratives, as well as producing new work. By the end of the year I was publishing one to two columns a month, and suddenly I found myself facing a new future, one where writing would play a major role in my life.