So. For reasons simple and not, I've not posted here in four months. Part of me dislikes even this much exposure (20 eyeballs reading a post) and to come back now is to get away with something. It's akin to singing in the shower, dancing in your room, you get the idea, right?
But having defined myself as a writer; a writer has to write.
So.
I am in throes of my still wonderful job, and four classes away from student teaching. I am working in a K-8 school for a few hours a week as I continue to process of "putting my money where my mouth is." If things go as planned (cough) in a couple of years I will end my formal work life teaching in a school. I will make a reluctant good-bye to my Yale colleagues and the work itself, and drew on everything I've known, been, studied, and attempted, and failed at to help some yet unmet children over the massive turnstile that is American inequality. And then I'll quit that, too, and officially be retired.
I am finally thinking of life-after-work. Don't want to travel. Don't want to golf. Ain't got no grandkids. And a dream house is just another house that needs to be cleaned. All I want, I confessed to a couple of friends, is to live long enough to use up my stash of material.
This is what it's like (at least for me) to round the corner to Official Old Age. As usual, my physical body preceded my mind. It's so damaged that even throwing off a duvet in the morning to get up to pee counts as exercise. If a fire broke out in the morning I would be toast. Just can't move that fast after having been horizontal for hours. Oh well. I'm still here. And still committed to ameliorating what I've done to my body, and what my body has done to me. That's a good sign -- it means that I intend to be vital longer. But, if I've learned anything as I've aged, it is that to increase the odds of vitality one has to work (hard) at it. It means that every day a significant amount of time is devoted to exercise -- for cardiovascular health, for strength, and for the cursed case of plantar fasciitis which began in my right foot and now includes my left. (Pause for profanity. Were I a quadriped it would be in all four feet, for sure.) I am to get as used to those rituals as an insulin-dependent diabetic is to the needle. Not that old age is a chronic disease, but as far as I'm concerned it must be engaged like one. Daily effort; constant vigilance.
Between the last time I posted and today have been plenty of trials and tribulations, shoes dropped and so on. At the turn of the New Year I took stock and although I hate to be made a liar by making resolutions on January 1st, I did it anyway.
This is the journey back. Day at a, meal at a, task at a time.
But having defined myself as a writer; a writer has to write.
So.
I am in throes of my still wonderful job, and four classes away from student teaching. I am working in a K-8 school for a few hours a week as I continue to process of "putting my money where my mouth is." If things go as planned (cough) in a couple of years I will end my formal work life teaching in a school. I will make a reluctant good-bye to my Yale colleagues and the work itself, and drew on everything I've known, been, studied, and attempted, and failed at to help some yet unmet children over the massive turnstile that is American inequality. And then I'll quit that, too, and officially be retired.
I am finally thinking of life-after-work. Don't want to travel. Don't want to golf. Ain't got no grandkids. And a dream house is just another house that needs to be cleaned. All I want, I confessed to a couple of friends, is to live long enough to use up my stash of material.
This is what it's like (at least for me) to round the corner to Official Old Age. As usual, my physical body preceded my mind. It's so damaged that even throwing off a duvet in the morning to get up to pee counts as exercise. If a fire broke out in the morning I would be toast. Just can't move that fast after having been horizontal for hours. Oh well. I'm still here. And still committed to ameliorating what I've done to my body, and what my body has done to me. That's a good sign -- it means that I intend to be vital longer. But, if I've learned anything as I've aged, it is that to increase the odds of vitality one has to work (hard) at it. It means that every day a significant amount of time is devoted to exercise -- for cardiovascular health, for strength, and for the cursed case of plantar fasciitis which began in my right foot and now includes my left. (Pause for profanity. Were I a quadriped it would be in all four feet, for sure.) I am to get as used to those rituals as an insulin-dependent diabetic is to the needle. Not that old age is a chronic disease, but as far as I'm concerned it must be engaged like one. Daily effort; constant vigilance.
Between the last time I posted and today have been plenty of trials and tribulations, shoes dropped and so on. At the turn of the New Year I took stock and although I hate to be made a liar by making resolutions on January 1st, I did it anyway.
This is the journey back. Day at a, meal at a, task at a time.
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