Binderama60for60

If you kept up with this series, you’ve learned a lot about me. The greater reward, selfishly, is that I’ve learned a lot about myself.

I’ve assembled continuity and meaning from a life of discontinuity, mostly self-inflicted. Meanwhile, I’ve faced down a lot of demons, chased a few away, buried some others. There’s still one or two in me, just to stoke the fire.

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life. I begin my 61st go-round the sun. Not true: it will be my 62nd. It’s my 61st year but my 62nd go-round. That’s math. I got 780 on my math SATs. I used to lie and say I got a perfect 800, but who honestly cares. So let’s just say I got 800. Or 1000. Btw, I scored miserably on my verbal so I might have made a tragically unwise career choice. Who cares?

Life goes on.

That’s the kind of clarity and candor I was hoping to surface when I started this 60|60 series more than a year ago. I thought it’d be a righteous hustle for introspection after 60 years, to make amends, get honest, settle some scores and celebrate a host of special people. Oh, and to feed my raging narcissism. Yeah, there’s that.

Superficial-narcissistic-extra-braggadocious!

Happy trails

Many thanks to those who’ve made my life interesting, fulfilling and sometimes thrilling. I’m talking about friends and family, bosses and inspirations, champions and passers-by. Gotta also call out those forces that have made life hard, scary and even painful at times. I learned from all of it. Most of it. A lot of it.

The trail so far has been good to me. I’m lucky. Some nice vistas and vibes, grand company, days and moments I’ll never forget.

There’s been a fair bit of change in the last year-plus. Even so, a key learning from 60|60 is that I haven’t changed. I have evolved, though, in thinking and living and definitely in my writing. 60|60 wasn’t a distraction. It helped me transition my creative process from over-programmed corporate bullshit to under-programmed heartfelt bullshit.

The greatest revelation, lesson and regret–all in one!–has been the matter of loyalty. I value loyalty from my tribe but I haven’t always responded in kind. I want to believe: eyes opened, lessons learned. But that would be too easy.

So this is where we pivot from the past to the trail ahead, like the song says. I never thought I’d quote Roy Rogers. But here we are. Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Tomorrow is just another day. I doubt much will change by then, though it will be Friday the 13th, so fingers crossed. There will be steak, Mary’s mac’n’cheese and fried asparagus (IYKYK). I might go surfing or learn how to blow glass or start that novel or run my first marathon. Good point: there aren’t a lot of marathons on Fridays. That would probably kill me anyway.

Say it now.

Beyond narcissism, at the core of this 60|60 series was the want to say things while we’re still here. When one of us passes—and in this example, let’s make it someone other than you or me, gentle reader—I don’t want to aim these words at a box or an urn or a cloud of errantly wind-borne ashes.

I want to say it to them now. Thank you.

And if you’ve got something nice you want to say to me—or not so nice—let’s get together for a long lunch with a few bottles of wine.

How’s tomorrow?