As I find myself deeper and deeper into the retirement years, I am fascinated with how so many people I know are reinventing themselves in small and large ways. This is part of the American character!
Telling you some stories of these folks, I will not name names (the internet being what it is).
Beginning with me, whose name you all know, I imagined myself as an older person who could be quite idiosyncratic and reach out to do some things I was exploring. So, community organizing seemed to be it and I dived into a vision of making one small community come alive. There was, and still is, so much to do and now, every time I look at our new community center my eyes tear up. I love the diverse people I work with every day in the school and in the community garden. I love being an activist embedded with these other people. I love learning from them.
I had a vision, as well, of being able to have the time for the fabric arts I love to do. Sure, I have made hundreds of quilts in the last ten years- all idiosyncratic. All the quilts and rugs and jellies I make are given away. We have enough of everything.
One man I know, an artist and car restorer and racer, reinvented himself by giving up alcohol, tobacco, any drugs. This enabled him to be the father to his kids he really always wanted to be and in the process of reinventing himself is working on some other life changes. This is a reinvention in progress.
Another friend used to be an artist and a potter who produced many lovely and practical works so many people use and love, eat out of and hang on their walls. She just abruptly gave this all up, sold all of her inventory and ceramic tools. Their kids have left to pursue their dreams elsewhere. She sold her large house that she used for all this and she and her husband bought an incredibly beautiful and richly appointed condo with magnificent views of the waterfront. Gone were the traces of an artistic life, gone were the gardens her husband tenderly cared for.
And now, she has reinvented herself as a cracker-jack realtor, a savvy businesswoman in the upscale real estate market. Her husband says he is not sorry to see the garden go. He's now into golf.
They are very happy, maybe more happy than they were before. Seems that this is a reinvention that works.
And then there is Charlene, who regularly reinvents herself over the years. Usually these reinventions are religious. For several years she was intensely Catholic and the images in her art (she is a well-known tile artist) were all about the Virgin Mary and halos. I once took a trip with her to Italy and she was practically catatonic when she viewed the Medieval religious painting in the Ufizzi. A couple of years ago, she walked the whole religious trail from northern Spain to the sea.
Shortly after that she gave up alcohol and that was the most major reinvention of her life so far (as I see it). But, wait! The big reinvention was her complete involvement in Buddhist meditation. This has taken her to Miramar for months and many other places to be in silence.
I salute these folks, these seekers. I love to hear about former students who are exploring psychoactive herbal drugs in South America, I salute the gifted musicians who really wanted to be chefs and now are doing it. I salute the risk-takers of all ages who have the daring to reinvent themselves, and, of whatever age, just go for it!
