Not only do I occasionally sound somewhat older than my years (a fact I do in fact have to agree with) but I have only just come to the realisation that I have actually named my blog after a novel in which a rather vivacious Welsh character looks back at her life as she is dying after a stroke in a hospital bed.
There is, of course, an inference here that on some subconscious level I am indeed "looking back" rather than looking forward at things and this fact did concern me just a little....after all I am a young "insanely vibrant" individual that still wears jeans, a walking dead (!) T shirt and who still has all his own teeth.
I am not ready for the knacker's Yard just yet!
Going Gently, I would like,to think, is less a look backwards at something...it was aimed to be a bit of a reflection at something.... namely the story of a lifestyle change from a city jobs-worth existence to the tale of a country gob shite's hobby farm and the characters within.....
humm........perhaps I am going through a late mid life crisis.....
I will discuss all this with my therapist
There are days when I feel fossilized, and many more when I really don't mind. I am who I am, which includes age. And, there are a number of things about myself I can change - and age isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteIt's when you start fancying a 'sports car' that you need to worry.
ReplyDeleteThere's no harm in looking back, just don't stare!
ReplyDeleteI thought perhaps you had chosen the name of your blog from the book title, your career in nursing terminally ill patients, being the reason.
ReplyDelete~Jo
10 years ago, in my early 50s, I too felt the onset of some powerful climacteric phase, but decided not to examine it until I have finished puberty.
ReplyDeleteYou still have ALL your own teeth? You obviously didn't drink in some of the places I did...
ReplyDeleteI though we were your therapists? xxx
ReplyDeleteShould have read "thought". x
ReplyDeleteI read your blog looking sideways. (I like Shooting Parrot's advice too).
ReplyDeleteWhat's it matter if you sound older than your years? What's it matter if you're often looking back? Once you're through these self-doubts, this mid-life crisis, just get on with being you and bugger what anybody else thinks.
ReplyDelete(from "YORKSHIRE PUDDING'S LITTLE RED BOOK OF COMMON SENSE")
"Don't look back, something may be gaining on you." ..satchel paige..
ReplyDeleteAnd somewhere in the middle of all this there's a real person...
ReplyDeleteIt's time for Pinot Grigio.
ReplyDeleteJane x
looking back and all that entails does seem the natural course of things after someone close dies...its when you stop laughing at yourself while you're looking that its gonna hurt!
ReplyDeleteNope, John, seems you're right on schedule for your mid-life crisis! Since few of us have heard of the memoir, you should just keep your keys quiet on the matter; I never thought about the blog as a rumination on a life gone by.
ReplyDeleteA therapist? Ha ha. As if you would bother with such middle-class self-indulgent arty-farty nonsense as therapy. "Insanely vibrant" is a perfect description of your good self. And anyone who's insanely vibrant needn't worry about being older than his years.
ReplyDeleteYou being insanely vibrant, is the reason why I keep returning to read your posts! Have a great weekend. Jo
ReplyDeleteYou're overthinking life and the hen house needs cleaned. But thanks for telling us anyway; I love the reading of it.
ReplyDeleteYou're still young and spunky! Keep wearing your jeans, just don't get blond highlights in your hair! That will be the end of all coolness!
ReplyDeleteI don't find your blog to be at all a look backwards. It's fascinating, enlightening, and entertaining. And I always find you to be very reflective and to have very keen perceptions. You DO sometimes sound like a grumpy old man, but that just adds to your charm.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Going Gently was a toilet thing...?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't leave my comment on your last post because blogger wouldn't let me (just one of those things that irritate, so hear it is here instead.
ReplyDeleteMy list of things that irritate me is so long that it would need its own blog! Instead I just let it occasionally spill over onto mine and then it gets out of my system for about, er, 10 minutes.
(oent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; SLCC2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0
I couldn't leave my comment on your last post because blogger wouldn't let me (just one of those things that irritate, so hear it is here instead.
ReplyDeleteMy list of things that irritate me is so long that it would need its own blog! Instead I just let it occasionally spill over onto mine and then it gets out of my system for about, er, 10 minutes.
(oh, and it wouldn't let me post here either, but I persevered.)
Nothing wrong with reflecting on the past occasionally.
ReplyDeleteShame I missed your last post though, it must be an age thing . . . Almost everything and everyone on tv (when i bother to switch it on) annoys me.
I don't think you are looking back at all, I think you give us a very entertaining account of the very interesting life you are living and I for one love reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis was a deep one, John. YP's Little Red Book of Common Sense could be a best seller - he's hit the nail right on the head.
ReplyDeleteI presumed you had named your blog after the Dyland Thomas poem - and I thought it a rather good name as I always think you have the attitude that you would fight your corner to the last minute - for all your animals if not necessarily for yourself. So don't disillusion me!
ReplyDeleteOh pish-awww! You sound like a young buck to me!! lol. Have missed keeping up with you. Hope all is well and you are looking fondly toward the future. xx~c
ReplyDeleteActually John, I find your posts to be very in the present with the occasional glance over the shoulder. Hey, we have all embraced you....now it is time for you to do the same (within reason, of course)!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is strikingly immediate in every way! The flower show plans and results, a lost fowl or two, what happened at work last night--definitely not the reminiscences of an aging man!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cro Magnum. Those sports car are the tell tell sign with the gray headed set! I never was the proud owner of a bright yellow Corvette, but I am seriously thinking about one these days!! Well, when I was young(er), my boyfriend used to let me drive his, so there really was no point in me having to buy one! Anyway, I think you are the bees knees and yours is the first blog I read every morning with my coffee. March onward and keep on doing.
ReplyDeleteLike Weaver, I thought the blog name was from the pome.
ReplyDelete"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Maybe you should add a 'Not'. 'Cos, you don't, John!
I've not ever seen anything that makes me think you need to talk to a therapist.
ReplyDeleteThough I would not be surprised if it is required in your line of work.
Have a great week, John. ♥
Personally I'm having kittens about turning 50, but I have 17 months left to prepare...
ReplyDeleteI thought you named it after this wonderful poem. I love this poem and did not think you old but living happily come what may.
ReplyDeleteDO NOT GO GENTLE INTO
THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas
I can't resist saying it, it's the librarian (and pedant) in me: "Going Gently" is quite possibly David Nobbs' best book and it's a treasure. Well worth reading.
ReplyDelete