AGING AND IMPATIENCE

AGING AND IMPATIENCE

One of the hazards of growing older is that when you read momentous announcements of things to come – you know you won’t be there to see them. Just as I won’t be around to see my grandchildren go to university, I will be long gone when the City of Toronto does something about the development of the 800 hectares of land in the central waterfront – land that could create public and commercial space, and add to the downtown critical mass of residential housing. Think of it – another ten or fifteen or twenty thousand people living downtown and leaving their cars parked.
The prediction is that the billions required to get going on this will mean that we won’t see it all for another twenty-five years, when I will be 105!
What really bothers me is not just the inability to get things done ( for those of us who remember the endless haggling of the railway lands, it’s déjà vu all over again,.) it is the monumental failure of people to conceive, to think, to act, on a massive issue.
Alas for me. There was a time when I could say all this and cultivate ideas in a few hundred thousand listeners. Now I shout words down a deep well echoing only the sadness I feel at being powerless.
Mark Kolke (of Mark Musings) has asked me for more material like my reminiscences about Kingsley Amis. He is not alone. Old friends (and fans) continue to tell me I have to create a memoir based on all the people I have met through the years.
The problem becomes insoluble. On the one hand I want to more forward (or as the blog says – Look Ahead) and stimulate new ideas and perhaps some change. No way. What they all seem to want is memories. I have them and I treasure them.
But who wants to be “remembered,” when you really want to be a force for change?
It is up to all of us closing in on our final years to stay relevant and active and persuasive. Funny, the Chinese (and look at what they achieve) hold the elderly in high esteem and look for their advice in decision-making..
Is it Confucianism? Is it reality?
I want to be here for the good stuff. I want to help make it happen.