youth
i turned 30 last friday. it's a very odd thing to turn 30 in our society. one thing that i've noticed is that people tend to think of that as an "old" age. since my birthday, i've told multiple people that i'm 30, and their response falls into one of two camps: either they say, "oh, you don't look that old," or they say, "well, 30 isn't that old". (i'm not sure who they're trying to convince, themselves or me).
and yet only two weeks ago i mentioned to someone that i was 29, and the response was, "you're such a baby still!"
there's a bifurcation that happens as we age, i suppose. 30 is a milestone. people expect something of a 30 year-old. time to have your shit together. time to be independent and able to stand on your own two feet. a blundering 30 year-old doesn't get the smile and excusing nods that a blundering 25 year-old gets.
so, i suppose that's a loss of sorts. loss of youth. still young, but not a youngster. time to get ready to face the inevitable. death is not just for old people. it's not just for your patients. its coming. your aging. better get ready. the ultimate personal loss, loss of your own breath, is somewhere out there. and it's no longer something that will be grabbed from you before your time. it's not just freak accidents and lottery-luck cancers that one has to concern oneself with. as my youth marches firmly into my past, i realize that i've got some real-life actualization to take care of.
loss of my youth. loss of breath. loss of life.
it's coming. i want to be ready. i want to be strong.
daily dharma: Right livelihood has ceased to be a purely personal matter. It is our collective karma. Suppose I am a schoolteacher and I believe that nurturing love and understanding in children is a beautiful occupation. I would object if someone were to ask me to stop teaching and become, for example, a butcher. But when I meditate on the interrelatedness of all things, I can see that the butcher is not the only person responsible for killing animals. He does his work for all of us who eat meat. We are co-responsible for his act of killing. We may think the butcher's livelihood is wrong and ours is right, but if we didn't eat meat, he wouldn't have to kill, or he would kill less. Right livelihood is a collective matter. The livelihood of each person affects us all, and vice versa. The butcher's children may benefit from my teaching, while my children, because they eat meat, share some responsibility for the butcher's livelihood.
Meaningful Work
Thich Nhat Hanh in Claude Whitmyer's Mindfulness and Meaningful Work
and yet only two weeks ago i mentioned to someone that i was 29, and the response was, "you're such a baby still!"
there's a bifurcation that happens as we age, i suppose. 30 is a milestone. people expect something of a 30 year-old. time to have your shit together. time to be independent and able to stand on your own two feet. a blundering 30 year-old doesn't get the smile and excusing nods that a blundering 25 year-old gets.
so, i suppose that's a loss of sorts. loss of youth. still young, but not a youngster. time to get ready to face the inevitable. death is not just for old people. it's not just for your patients. its coming. your aging. better get ready. the ultimate personal loss, loss of your own breath, is somewhere out there. and it's no longer something that will be grabbed from you before your time. it's not just freak accidents and lottery-luck cancers that one has to concern oneself with. as my youth marches firmly into my past, i realize that i've got some real-life actualization to take care of.
loss of my youth. loss of breath. loss of life.
it's coming. i want to be ready. i want to be strong.
daily dharma: Right livelihood has ceased to be a purely personal matter. It is our collective karma. Suppose I am a schoolteacher and I believe that nurturing love and understanding in children is a beautiful occupation. I would object if someone were to ask me to stop teaching and become, for example, a butcher. But when I meditate on the interrelatedness of all things, I can see that the butcher is not the only person responsible for killing animals. He does his work for all of us who eat meat. We are co-responsible for his act of killing. We may think the butcher's livelihood is wrong and ours is right, but if we didn't eat meat, he wouldn't have to kill, or he would kill less. Right livelihood is a collective matter. The livelihood of each person affects us all, and vice versa. The butcher's children may benefit from my teaching, while my children, because they eat meat, share some responsibility for the butcher's livelihood.
Meaningful Work
Thich Nhat Hanh in Claude Whitmyer's Mindfulness and Meaningful Work
posted by higgypiggy at 2:13 PM
1 Comments:
Happy birthday, man. And about turning 30... eh. Old is as old does. Sometimes I feel like Ira and wonder if I have it in me to slug it out another day. Then I realize that something I'm doing is making a difference and it's all worthwhile.
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