The dreaded light came on in my wife's car the other day as she drove to work. Then the car dutifully stalled. This had me thinking as we were wrapping up spring break in Orange County (where the beautiful people live) and driving the 400 miles back to San Francisco. This blog might appeal to my readership at the mid point of their life as is the case for me, while for others it might be like watching paint dry ... unless the latter is your thing it would be good to go ahead and read it anyway.
I am refering to the concept of gaining perspective on your own mortality at this mid life crisis moment where you and the spouse (in most cases) have pulled the ox cart up the hill and now are catching your breath on the plateau before its all downhill ... the kid is about to wrap up school while you are on that plateau hopefully and you are going to stick around to watch him, her or they graduate (to something they think is worth graduating for).
Going downhill and all is fun (in a Porsche or a Fiat - depending on your perspective of the mid life crisis) but its worth checking to see if you still have brakes left. Also note that mid life is a mere optimistic estimate (what with all the high funda statistics we learned) with no guarantee that it will indeed be so...the bucket as they say might be round the corner on that plateau.
Getting back to the 'Engine Light' analogy - it is interesting that like a car you also have to start thinking of your own 50,000 mile major service soon. Check in and stay a while - get all your tubes and orifices and valves checked and make sure that there is proper oil and other fluids in you to keep the ticker going for the next 50k.
I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language. Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds. The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic. Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'. This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...
Hope lies eternal in the human breast, as some wise guy has already said. There was a joke about Shantanurao Kirloskar, when he once replied to someone asking him how he maintained his health at 80 or so years..."it's a Kirloskar product, after all"
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