So What Now?

I’ve done a double-nickel and now have to figure out what to do next. An awkward age at best, too young for the senior discount, to old to fool myself into believing I am middle age, unless I am destined to live to 110. I’m not sure I’d want to live that long to be honest, I am not sure why I am still hanging around in the first place. It is time to look back at things I’ve done and I have done a lot, not all pretty, set no records or scaled any mountains, but there is a lot of experience there. It amazes me sometimes to think of all the things I have seen, the events I have had a hand in, the places I have been, all the stuff I know now and all the stuff I am eager to find out about. I susp3ect that is what keeps me going; the curiosity about what comes next.

There is a chunk of metal and wires up on Mars at the present time digging holes in the Martian dirt as I write this. I remember the first leap into space and later the grainy black and white photos sent back of the moon’s surface. As a youngster I toured a computer – it took up an entire two story building and only did payroll and inventory, the same functions the calculator that fits in your shirt pocket can do today. If you were diagnosed with cancer during the time of my childhood, you might as well start digging the hole, now there is a better than average chance you can survive – there is an even better chance detecting the cancer in the first place before it gets so far along no one can help. We’ve all come so far in so many ways, yet have so far to go.

What would I like to do? Go back to school. There are so many interesting things, so much I want to know about I doubt my curiosity will ever be satisfied. I want to study the arts, science, writing, journalism, music, everything and anything I can lay my hands on. I want to be the old coot everyone sees while sitting in the corner of the student union drinking crappy cafeteria coffee, a tall stack of books lying on the table next to me.

But I suppose I will just keep on working to pay for the house, the car, all the practical things that come with trying to live life. Who knows, maybe I will hit the lottery and my next blog will come from that corner in the student union.