21 August 2012

report card

Good things pass all too soon, the bad drag on forever. Eight months ago I set out to plot my year in a blog and find myself two thirds of a year from that first post. It’s gone neither fast nor slow, but certainly nowhere I ever expected.

As a father I find myself wishing I could see more of my daughter and my grand-daughter. I see a little more of my son and feel a closer than I have for maybe ten years. In both I see fine people I am proud to have brought up.

As a son I inch closer to caring for parents, although my sister is placing herself, geographically and  in semi-retirement, to bear most of that burden. Neither of us sees much joy in the task ahead, but perhaps we will find unexpected joys there.

As a brother nothing much changes; I get on fine with my sister but we don’t share a great deal or do anything together beyond the usual family occasions.

As a worker my situation is completely off my January radar. I have a job that pays more and expects more of me than I could have anticipated. I am glad to have it but it is forcing other changes in my life, changes I’m not so sure about.

As a resident I’ve become the chair of a small owners corporation, not something I set out to be. Being a long way from my principal workplace I find myself contemplating moving much closer to that workplace, living in an apartment or flat, something entirely new to me.

I also find myself earning a decent wage for the first time in over a decade and wondering how best to deploy or invest that income. This is foreign territory for someone who lived from one fortnight’s pay to the next.

As a lover I suddenly find myself not a lover at all when a month ago I still wondered when and how I would live with my good woman some time in the future.

As a man looking for meaning after 60 I find all too much that I can’t make sense of, but why should I? I have, after all, argued forever and a day that life is meaningless. That’s life generally, of course. An individual life can’t be without meaning. The quest continues.

Rock on. 

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