At this writing, I am a little bit scared about what is in store for me over the next 10 years. First question: Will I make it to 80? My paternal line, my dad and his dad both died in their early 80’s. Then there is my mother who is going strong at 101. The odds are at least 50/50. My mother has aged well, I think because she has stayed active and also, she is someone who follows the dictum of moderation in all things. She has kept on a very steady course.
Next question: Retirement, how and when? My partner Diane is retiring from her work early next year. My sister has retired, in large part due to her cancer illness and need for ongoing treatment. I don’t personally know many people who have kept working past age 70. My Social Security check is reasonably substantial. I earn $2500-3000 dollars net from my work at this time. My IRA just passed $60K and I still have a modest amount of money left over from the sale of my condo 10 years ago. Like everyone else, I would like to travel in my retirement years, particularly to Puerto Rico where my father was born, also to Europe, also to South America or Japan and the Far East. Two couples I know have done the Spain to Portugal El Camino trail which sounds like a beautiful thing to do.
Next question: Creative aspirations, what is possible? I am currently active with songwriting and screenplay writing and I definitely want to do more in my retirement years. I’ve even got a screenplay mentor I am working with at the moment and as far as songwriting, there are so many options for getting better with that. Right now, I tend to switch between the two. I was fortunate enough to have my friend Linda Marks put my album Light Still Shines The Same up for Grammy consideration for Best Alternative Album for the 2026 Grammies. Not sure how I would handle it if I got an actual nomination. But it’s a good album, well produced and recorded and certainly deserves consideration. My two screenplays, Chasing Gilels and Movable Algebra are also good projects. Just keep moving forward.
Back to the question of the next 10 years. I got a health reality check very recently following my most recent Cardiology exam. 85% blockage in one of the feeding veins to my Right Coronary Artery and 50% blockage in the Artery itself. Last Monday, two stents were fed into my heart through my right arm and I have spent the week recovering from the surgery. Surgery is always tricky but mine so far has been uneventful. I have been both Asthmatic and Diabetic for the past 15-20 years but maybe too cocky with my food choices and too sedentary with my lifestyle choices. So I need to change up, slow down, plan for this journey for hopefully the next 10 years or more. As my friend John put it, he needs me around for the next 10 years at least.
I think living well is a combination of living with intention and going with the flow, not one or the other but both. Knowing that there are things about which I can make choices and other events over which I have no control. My next performing gig will be in December, as part of a showcase with my ISSA friends titled ironically The Wisdom of Lived Years. Thinking both about the next three months and the next 10 years at the same time.