More yesterdays than tomorrows [323]

Greetings from across time...

Documentally

Feb 03, 2022

I’m 50 today.

#TheAction

Ten years ago today I wrote this on documentally.com.

Being forty felt like a big deal, but being fifty feels like an honour and a privilege.

I really cannot complain. Revisiting that old post has reminded me of the amazing year(s) I had, grabbing new experiences whenever the opportunity arose. I managed over forty things, not all logged and not all from the list. But it was a year full of new experiences. There are still few more things I’d like to do.

The list did a great job in fortifying a mindset and the last ten years have been filled with fun, family, friendship and adventure.

You are never to old and it’s never too late.

Now, being officially ‘over the hill’, there is nothing to do but pick up momentum.

Into the next ten years…

This has been a week for connecting with friends. Old and new, local and those across the world.

The house still smells of woodsmoke as on Sunday I was lucky to have a couple of friends over for a drink in the garden.

Although we look like three guys covertly celebrating a successful b-movie heist, I can neither confirm nor deny anything other than this was a great opportunity to catch up… Even to burn an early birthday present. Some Irish turf.

In addition to the garden get together, I caught up with a couple of friends I’ve not seen for a decade and in another case decades. It’s strange when I google someone and there is nothing that connects to them. Not doing Facebook means it’s not the first place I go and I just assume people overshare to the open Web as I do.

But when one friend lives in an American woodland in a cabin she is still building, and another, also in the US trains fighter pilots, I can forgive them for not having much of a digital footprint.

[It looks like I had broken the archive of dispatch [321] The ‘Linkstravaganza’. It appeared to be an early draft with very little in it. Should you have needed the online version it is fixed now.]

#ThePictures

The work of artist Jimmy Craig has had me and the family in stitches.

There is lots more to dig into at TheyCanTalk.com

I’m enjoying exploring this lighthouse map.

#TheWords

“The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.” -T.S. Elliot

This book was a gift from my friend Richard Slade. (Pictured on the left above.)

It’s a treasure hunt in a book. With real treasure at the end.

As I mentioned above I’ve been chatting over email with an old friend whom I’ve not seen for 25 years. A mother, an adventurer, the first civilian pilot to be hired by AETC to train the best of the best. She is an exceptional human being.

She is also not well. In fact the odds are stacked against her. I had to google Glioblastoma and it’s an ugly read. It’s the opposite of the emails we have exchanged. Which are a beautiful journey back to a pre 9-11, pre Covid carefree time of travel and adventure.

I asked her how she copes? If she feels like she’s living on borrowed time.

She wrote…

“An airplane needs headwind or the resistance of wind to take flight and become airborne. I’ll keep fighting - no matter the resistance.”

#TheSound

I popped on to the 99pi website to link you to the current volume of mini-stories I was listening to. It was episode 473 which includes a Tour de France ditty on how come the commentators know so much about the history which the cyclists pass through. But right there on the page sat the Punisher skull. I still have my Punisher comics and although I’ve not read them for a while I would often dig out a Punisher t-shirt I wore to Rock City in my teens. The Punished started off as a fictional baddy, albeit a goody turned bad as he killed to get justice for his murdered family. But recently this symbol/meme has popped up in all kinds of places. On militarised police uniforms and the hats and T-shirts of white supremacists. Real life baddies. So I wear mine less now.

So in the 99pi, feed this podcast is from Endless Thread and explores the Punisher Skull as a meme and how it might need saving.

Love love this rendition.

#TheConsumed

Remember I was wanting to try a darker aged miso? Thanks to @UchujinPhoto I have.

His birthday present to me made a great soup. I’m looking forward to trying it in other dishes.

#TheThings

My Wife got me a book for my 50th.

On each of 50 pages is an art card and on the back is written a small challenge leading to an experience. It might be something like, ‘go the the coast for fish and chips’ or ‘learn how to make your own pasta’. In some instances there is an envelope on the back of the page with a ticket that will assist in completing the task. There is theatre, food, pampering and adventure. There is also space for me to document the experience with words or images. A truly amazing gift from a wonderful lady.

I bought my daughter and me new climbing harnesses. Both feature in this video. LINK. Apparently my antique harness was not acceptable at the indoor wall. Loving this new one though.

#TheWeb

It wasn’t until a few hundred years ago that we started sleeping through the whole night.
Shade map is pretty cool.
Checking out the Documentally community map I can see readership in Africa is a little thin. Have you added yourself to the map?
I take great comfort in the fact there are species of tree on this planet that are still to be discovered. Let’s hope we find them in time.
I struggled to read this article as it’s seeded with great future titles for this email. Things like ‘societal diabetes’, ‘disturbing heritage’ and ‘sacred waste’.
What makes you and your childhood self the same person despite a lifetime of change?

#TheEnd

Thanks for reading this early and slightly rushed dispatch. Weirdly I don’t feel old. I feel lots of other things though. Spoiled, lucky to have made it this far, and very grateful.

I hope you will forgive me for heading out to celebrate over the next couple of days.

Chat soon I hope.

“There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless.” ~ Milan Kundera

Stay young,

See you out there.

Over…