I am enjoying the mellow patina of greens and bronze of the 3rd age. Have been coasting and enjoying the view… still need to hit the gas pedal to get some poetry in print ( maybe leopard print 🐆😊 )
Oh, sixty! Maybe I'll write an ode. I'm almost exactly seven months older than you, but things started to click for me this year for many of the reasons you mention. We're enough to know better, yet hopefully young enough to have energy for that third act. My productivity these days seems to be constructed out of all the things I choose *not* to spend my time doing. Hope to catch up with you at our 40th (yikes!) college reunion in a year or so.
Great to hear 60 is causing some things to click! I think that's the case for me. I'd love to catch up at our reunion. I've forgotten when it is, but, yes, yikes to 40th!
At 64, going on 65 in July, I’m just starting my first creative quarter. If I'm lucky, I might make it to quarter 2. You have my sympathies though. It sucks to get old, such is life🙏
Welcome to your 60s, Grant! As you let go of much of what was in your life, I hope you live in the happiness that many of us find in this decade of our years. Overall, the best and happiest decade of my life. Nunez fan that you are-2 films based on her novels are about to be released.
I love this so much. I'm 72, which makes you still young, and I'm trying the rusting approach on for size. I think it fits. I'm going observe the shades of brown in tree bark. And I'm exploring this in my own Third Act monthly newsletter post. Thank you! (P.S. So far, this is my favorite decade.)
I love how Time shifts perspective on what's old and what's young. I think of 40-year-olds as babes. And some of them do still have some baby fat on their cheeks. Good to know that the next decade holds great promise!
Love this: "We say goodbye to something every day." And as I stare down 56, an age once associated with "other people," I related to so much of this. Beauty in the rust and dust, indeed.
I love to hear from younger folk like yourself! The next 20 plus years can be awesome! At 82 I am still practicing as an architect and love it. I relate well to your love of rust for many of the same reasons you state. Corten is a wonderful steel that takes on a patina of rust, ( it becomes a protective coating ). It changes colors depending on the atmosphere it is exposed to. Corten in a smoggy area will look different than one in a cleaner or saltier area. A friend and artist, Barbara Bowles, in Santa Fe, NM has made a career and gallery out of photographing rusty old trucks. Bbowles505@me.com. Great stuff! My sister, Karen Fitzgerald, introduced me to your blog!
Oh, I love this description of Corten—a patina that becomes a protective coating. And what mystery it has, looking different in different places. I'll check out Barbara Bowles' work. Here's to rust in all forms!
Haha, it's a long story, but I tried it on in a consignment store in Ottumwa, Iowa, and loved it. But I didn't buy it because I knew I'd never wear it and didn't want to fly back with it. Some friends ended up buying it for me as a joke, and ... I've found places to wear it. It's a magic coat. It's good to have a magic coat in your closet.
Happy Birthday. I’m right on your heels at 57 and thinking about this stuff a lot. I hate the phrase “but it beats the alternative” which is patently stating the obvious (but I get the impulse.) I try to embrace the privilege of getting older. It’s kinda cool to live all these years, decades. Memories aren’t the same as dreams for the future, but they have a different beauty. Less gloss. More patina. As you point out, rust. I like my silver hair, actually. If things never changed, if we didn’t know there was an end, life would be less poignant.
Love the phrase "privilege of getting older." We are lucky, and it's important to recognize that. Also nice to distinguish the differences between memories and dreams.
I think this is my favorite of yours.
I agree!
Oh, wow, thanks so much, Christy!
I am enjoying the mellow patina of greens and bronze of the 3rd age. Have been coasting and enjoying the view… still need to hit the gas pedal to get some poetry in print ( maybe leopard print 🐆😊 )
Oh, sixty! Maybe I'll write an ode. I'm almost exactly seven months older than you, but things started to click for me this year for many of the reasons you mention. We're enough to know better, yet hopefully young enough to have energy for that third act. My productivity these days seems to be constructed out of all the things I choose *not* to spend my time doing. Hope to catch up with you at our 40th (yikes!) college reunion in a year or so.
Great to hear 60 is causing some things to click! I think that's the case for me. I'd love to catch up at our reunion. I've forgotten when it is, but, yes, yikes to 40th!
At 64, going on 65 in July, I’m just starting my first creative quarter. If I'm lucky, I might make it to quarter 2. You have my sympathies though. It sucks to get old, such is life🙏
I bought me a mob wife coat that needs to meet your coat and drink martinis together (never mind I hate martinis, I think my coat must love them!)
I'd love to drink martinis in the name of our coats!
We could fake smoke cigs too!
Haha, I love that we're at the stage of "fake smoking"! I'll bring the candy cigarettes.
I love those!!
Welcome to your 60s, Grant! As you let go of much of what was in your life, I hope you live in the happiness that many of us find in this decade of our years. Overall, the best and happiest decade of my life. Nunez fan that you are-2 films based on her novels are about to be released.
Thanks, Jane! I'm looking forward to those Nunez films ...
I love this so much. I'm 72, which makes you still young, and I'm trying the rusting approach on for size. I think it fits. I'm going observe the shades of brown in tree bark. And I'm exploring this in my own Third Act monthly newsletter post. Thank you! (P.S. So far, this is my favorite decade.)
I love how Time shifts perspective on what's old and what's young. I think of 40-year-olds as babes. And some of them do still have some baby fat on their cheeks. Good to know that the next decade holds great promise!
Thank you. I needed this. Oh, God, how I needed this today.
Go ‘head, Pimpdaddy! Good looking out, Grant, and happy birthday.
Haha, Pimpdaddy for the elder crowd ...
Love this: "We say goodbye to something every day." And as I stare down 56, an age once associated with "other people," I related to so much of this. Beauty in the rust and dust, indeed.
I love to hear from younger folk like yourself! The next 20 plus years can be awesome! At 82 I am still practicing as an architect and love it. I relate well to your love of rust for many of the same reasons you state. Corten is a wonderful steel that takes on a patina of rust, ( it becomes a protective coating ). It changes colors depending on the atmosphere it is exposed to. Corten in a smoggy area will look different than one in a cleaner or saltier area. A friend and artist, Barbara Bowles, in Santa Fe, NM has made a career and gallery out of photographing rusty old trucks. Bbowles505@me.com. Great stuff! My sister, Karen Fitzgerald, introduced me to your blog!
Oh, I love this description of Corten—a patina that becomes a protective coating. And what mystery it has, looking different in different places. I'll check out Barbara Bowles' work. Here's to rust in all forms!
Thanks for this excellent piece. I'm currently ahead of you by a decade and lichen is my muse.
Oh, I love lichen. Good muse ...
So much to unpack there…
60 is not what it used to be, we are somehow more and less at the same time.
It’s my year to grab the age as well. Wouldn’t know it and yet, here it is.
Cheers🔥
Love the coat. Details please
Haha, it's a long story, but I tried it on in a consignment store in Ottumwa, Iowa, and loved it. But I didn't buy it because I knew I'd never wear it and didn't want to fly back with it. Some friends ended up buying it for me as a joke, and ... I've found places to wear it. It's a magic coat. It's good to have a magic coat in your closet.
Happy Birthday. I’m right on your heels at 57 and thinking about this stuff a lot. I hate the phrase “but it beats the alternative” which is patently stating the obvious (but I get the impulse.) I try to embrace the privilege of getting older. It’s kinda cool to live all these years, decades. Memories aren’t the same as dreams for the future, but they have a different beauty. Less gloss. More patina. As you point out, rust. I like my silver hair, actually. If things never changed, if we didn’t know there was an end, life would be less poignant.
Love the phrase "privilege of getting older." We are lucky, and it's important to recognize that. Also nice to distinguish the differences between memories and dreams.
Your photos of rust are inspirational, thank you!