Elizabeth Gilbert Is Right: Ideas Will Fly Away
Yesterday morning, I finally sat down to write the blogpost I’ve been thinking about for - well - a year and a half. the one that quotes Paul Simon, “How Terribly Strange to be 70.”
Except that I’m now 71 and a half (we celebrate half birthdays around here).
I was almost done - just a few blanks to fill in, and I’ll submit later - but it was time to take my three grandchildren swimming . Off we went. A few hours and frizzy hair later. I got home to find that Anne LaMott, one of my favorite writers, had beat me to it.
Her opinion piece, in the Washington Post, published just that day is called, of course “It’s not so ‘terribly strange to be 70’”.
Insert sigh here. Procrastination. Foiled again.
In her wonderful book, Big Magic,Elizabeth Gilbert shares her theory that if an idea comes to you, and you ignore it for too long (or put off taking action), it will fly away and land somewhere else.
Yep.
Let the record show that I love Anne LaMott’s piece on aging. This is why she is a “real” author, and I just dabble, while my other dabbles (acting, improv, speaking, podcasting, broadcasting, teaching) are simmering away elsewhere.
Still: here’s what I wrote, just hours before Anne LaMott’s piece came out.
How Terribly Strange to be…70?
The title comes from the song “Old Friends” (by Paul Simon - last song on the album Bookends, an amazing work).
When I was 17 it was one of the songs I played on my guitar and added to my folk song set. At the time, 70 was worlds away. Now I ‘m here - along with many of my friends - and life is a far cry from Simon’s vision:
Old friends sat on their park bench like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass falls on the round toes on the high shoes of the old friends
…Can you imagine us years from today sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy
Wow, how…silent. And serene. Not exactly like the 70 (okay, 71 and a half) I know.
Yes, ideas will fly away. So will opportunites.
Here’s how the 70’s are playing out for me, so far:
Still working
Still trying new things - like comedy class, auditioning for new roles, anything but sports (sorry, not even pickleball. Blasphemy!).
Considering going back to college for a second degree. Though I still have nightmares about term papers that are due.
No plastic surgery or fillers. Yes, I have wrinkles.
Still wear overalls whenever I can get away with it.
And, yes, three young grandkids who live almost next door. Xoxoxoxo
Benn through a lot of stuff. Older, Wiser (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, how about some wise non-stars for your podcast?), and learning.
Yes, the body that I live in is showing wear and tear.
My friends and I sit around and suddenly hear ourselves comparing aches, pains, and limitations. And then we laugh about it (thank God)
I do wonder if my next car, or my next pet, might be my last.
I’m tempted - so tempted - to use the filters on zoom that blur the wrinkles, and to grow out my salt-and-pepper grays (but…not yet)
And I have lost friends this year. Friends that are my age, some even younger. A couple of cousins, a slew of ex-boyfriends (warning: do not break up with me!). Each and every one of the ones I was lucky enough to visit before their passing had exactly the same wish:
I wish I had more time.
So - maybe that is the simple lesson of 70: If you are lucky enough to have one more day, one more year, one more decade -- live it. Take chances. Give hugs. Find the moments of joy. Spread love. Do good work.
Write the darn blog post - even if it isn’t perfect. Or, maybe, someone else was meant to take that idea and share it.
Move on. You still have time. If you’re lucky. 70 is just a new decade waiting to be lived.
So far, so good.
