I turn 40 in December. A friend of mine turns 40 next year. As this milestone approaches in our lives, we’ve been IMing back and forth about all the things big and small we’ve been putting off over the years, and the things we never really finished.
I’m really tempted to grow my list to 40 items, but that’s the just internet talking:
- 100 things in 1000 days
- 365 project
- Top 10
- Top 5
I have to remember 40 isn’t the number of items or actions, and it’s not some get-it-done project. Rather, it’s a number of years, and the mark of my life’s second stage. It’s something that makes me want to shift some priorities.
Restore the Volvo - I own a 1964 Volvo station wagon currently languishing in my dad’s garage. It’s probably time I begin doing something about that.
Contemplate my next career move - self explanatory
Publish Boone’s Landing - ongoing
Write a new novel - I have this scene I’ve been thinking about. I imagined a man trying to become (as happened in real life) the world’s fattest person. In the novel he succeeds, but the cameraman sent with the news crew to capture the story is too drugged up on pain killers and antidepressants to understand the cultural significance and horror of what he’s been sent to record and broadcast to millions. It’s just an image that came to me.
Take the family on a vacation to Europe - They’re my favorite people on earth and I’d like to share some experiences with them.
Plant a garden - I keep talking about it, and I think food and cooking are some of the most important things on earth. I’m just not accustomed to nature and its cycles. The second half of a person’s life seems a fine time to change that relationship.
Practice home repair - Or maybe just slow down and start researching projects before I start them.
Move to a new neighborhood - Our house is a little small, but it’s given us some wonderful years and could probably be our home for many more. We don’t really fit in our neighborhood, though.
Attend a Tour de France mountain stage - A dream since I was a kid.
Learn to sail - Again, I think it would be fun to be able to take my family out on a boat and enjoy that experience with them. And I don’t want the boat to make a bunch of noise. We all have enough noises in our lives, don’t we?
Learn a foreign language - I took Spanish in middle school, and had German in high school and college. Dropped into Munich, I could probably get myself a taxi and a hotel and something to eat. This time, I’m thinking French, or maybe Spanish.
Learn to draw again - I used to be really good. Really. It’s a shame I let the talent wane.
(And I should probably learn a computer language)
None of these have to be complete when I’m 40. It’s not a list about completing things. The last thing I need now is more check boxes. Rather, the list is about contemplating and learning. It’s about investigating travel and language and art. It’s about finding out the process involved in rebuilding a brake cylinder, making a door jam plumb, understanding the seasons and the sun. It’s about re-awakening old muscle memories and discovering new ones. It’s about becoming one of those mad runners who dashes along next to a sprinter so slogged from the day’s climb he can barely remember his name. In the end, it’s about getting on with it.
