It’s the last blog of the year, and tomorrow is the last day of the year, so today let’s talk about the future. Because the future is where you will live the rest of your life.
Your Junk at 50
Like it or not, the rest of your life will be lived in your future. That’s true for your money, your relationships, and your teeth too. Planning ahead is a human endowment, but for many of us, “current me” consumes most of the bandwidth, so we often don’t spend a lot of time thinking about “future me”. This is especially true for anyone under the age of 50.
Why 50? Because right around the age of 50 (give or take) is when your junk starts to wear out. Sure there are outliers, but it’s a just about the half century mark that we start to realize, “Hey, my junk is starting to wear out, I’m older than a few of my teeth, and this ride doesn’t last forever.”
Simple Wisdom
There’s this guy named Jeff Bezos, maybe you’ve heard of him. He invented this thing that saved Christmas for most of us, and a lot of us from the Covid time as well (hint: A**zon). There’s a talk he gave one time about his perspective on time, it’s on the YouTube. “I’m always thinking three months ahead”, he said. That’s pretty good advice from a guy who pretty much changed everything. Always think 3 months ahead.
What’s going to be going on in your world in April 2024? Your money? Your relationships? Your teeth? If you’re looking for a mentor this year, remember this simple wisdom: If you want to get rich, take advice from rich people. If you want to change the world, listen to someone who did. If you want to be happy, hang around with others who are.
Two Clichés
Here’s a cliché: “Youth is wasted on the young”. It was probably coined by someone over 50, but there’s a lot of truth to it. I was at a New Year’s party a few years ago in Sun Valley, Idaho and I ran into a woman who I had met in our 30’s. We reminisced for a bit about our “back in the day” days, skiing, getting drunk, doing boy-girl stuff, and then the conversation turned to our physical ailments. She smartly said, “it’s funny how when we get into our 50’s we all start talking about our junk falling apart.” Raise your hand if you so get it.
Another great cliché is: “You never know”. It’s true, you never really do, and that applies to a lot of things. Life is full of stray arrows that future you can’t anticipate. None of us in the first world saw the coming of the Covid, but it changed everything. You walk around the corner at the grocery, and for no apparent reason you meet someone who ends up being your person. Future you can’t plan for everything, but there is one thing you can plan one for sure: one day, poof – you’re gone. You just never know, but then again, you really do.
Ironic isn’t it?
East vs. West
And then there’s just our perspective of time. Take east vs. west. We westerners are reactionary and short sited. Each day we drown ourselves in tech and are bombarded with stimuli from eyes opened to eyes closed. These days social scientists tell us that in our current development we have the attention span of a goldfish – less than 8 seconds. But the west is still the best. Jim Morrison thought so.
Here’s an interesting little tiddle you probably didn’t know about time perspective in the east: during the Paris peace talks after the Vietnam war, the Americans rented a villa for six weeks because they figured that’s about how long it would take to negotiate a settlement. The north Vietnamese rented a villa for two years. When asked why so long, they said, “We’ve been in this war for over 2,000 years, what difference does a few weeks make?”
Word.
Future Plans
Can you plan ahead for everything? Certainly not. I met a couple in their 20’s last week. They didn’t even know each other existed six months ago. Now she’s four months pregnant, they’re getting married in a month, and I just sold them their first house. How’s that for speed-adulting? If your over 50 and shaking your head right now, I so get it, but I decided not to tell them that one day the chemicals wear off, that over 55% of us don’t make it to “death do us part”, and that the 7-year itch really is a thing. They’re kids and they’re in love as they understand it. “Leave ‘em alone” I said to myself, “it doesn’t last forever”.
This I know; I’m over 50.
Tomorrow
New Year’s when I was a kid was pretty fun. We’d go tour cabin in the woods, get drunk with our dads, and blow shit up. It was awesome. This year we’re going to the Heart concert in Seattle (which is kind of the same thing when you think about it) and then seeing what other debauchery we can find under the Space Needle with the other 10,000 other celebrators. 2024 – Woo Hoo!
What’s future you going to do this year? Lose weight? Make money? Find new love? Write a book? All of the above? I’m sure we’ll talk about all of that and lot more in the next 12 months, but for now, let me offer a simple piece of advice for future you and your teeth today and all your days to come: be grateful for each day you are here. That’s why we call it “the present”.
Good luck and have a good week.
Joe Still
2023.12.31
Cite
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever you do, whoever you are.”
– C. S. Lewis