Growing old.
"In our later years, we pull in the outposts.
At ten, fantasy drives an exploring module around the moon; at twenty the Trans-Siberian Railway or hunkering down to help natives in Mindanao; at thirty a year off in Tuscany or Tahiti. We station a couple of scouts at the perimeter of the empire - geographical and also intellectual. We shall take music lessons, learn Spanish dance, paint on a houseboat, read Proust, Gibson and Cervantes, open a restaurant, write a movie script or a detective novel, study Chinese, play the commodities markets. We begin to send a few more troops to these outposts, visit them, dwell there. We gather clippings, keep notes and addresses, mark possible future dates in the calendar. Then, as years pass, we begin to call the troops home one by one. With lingering nostalgia we abandon them to the sands and the wind. Traceless fantasies. Some vanish without yearnings, more likely with amazement that they once seemed viable parts of the empire. Pulling in the outposts is simply calling home the possibilities and dropping in to where you are, your place."
(Sorry, I forget where I read this & failed to note the author; but oh, how it fits !)
At ten, fantasy drives an exploring module around the moon; at twenty the Trans-Siberian Railway or hunkering down to help natives in Mindanao; at thirty a year off in Tuscany or Tahiti. We station a couple of scouts at the perimeter of the empire - geographical and also intellectual. We shall take music lessons, learn Spanish dance, paint on a houseboat, read Proust, Gibson and Cervantes, open a restaurant, write a movie script or a detective novel, study Chinese, play the commodities markets. We begin to send a few more troops to these outposts, visit them, dwell there. We gather clippings, keep notes and addresses, mark possible future dates in the calendar. Then, as years pass, we begin to call the troops home one by one. With lingering nostalgia we abandon them to the sands and the wind. Traceless fantasies. Some vanish without yearnings, more likely with amazement that they once seemed viable parts of the empire. Pulling in the outposts is simply calling home the possibilities and dropping in to where you are, your place."
(Sorry, I forget where I read this & failed to note the author; but oh, how it fits !)
