This Morning's Selfie . . .

I don't mind growing old.

I never have.

But somehow this year has me taking stock of my life and feeling that there is way too much in the negative column and not nearly enough in the positive.

Not only have I failed to reach many lifetime goals, I have kept others from theirs.

Now what?

Once you've completed your inventory what are you supposed to do with it?

At my age it's way too late to start over.

Maybe I could find some inspiration in this list:


At 59, “Satchel” Paige became the oldest Major League baseball player.
At 60, playwright and essayist George Bernard Shaw finished writing "Heartbreak House," regarded by many as his masterpiece.
At 61, Charles Cagniard de la Tour, a French doctor, demonstrated that fermentation depends upon yeast cells.
At 62, J.R.R. Tolkien published the first volume of his fantasy series, "Lord of the Rings."
At 63, John Dryden undertook the enormous task of translating the entire works of Virgil into English verse.
At 64, Thomas Bowdler “bowdlerized” Shakespeare’s works, making them “family friendly.”
At 65, jazz musician Miles Davis defiantly performed his final live album, just weeks before he died.
At 66, Noah Webster completed his monumental "American Dictionary of the English Language."
At 67, Simeon Poisson discovered the laws of probability after studying the likelihood of death from mule kicks in the French army.
At 68, the English experimentalist Sir William Crookes began investigating radioactivity and invented a device for detecting alpha particles.
At 69, Canadian Ed Whitlock of Milton, Ontario, Canada, became the oldest person to run a standard marathon in under three hours (2:52:47).
At 70, Cornelius Vanderbilt began buying railroads.
At 71, Katsusuke Yanagisawa, a retired Japanese schoolteacher, became the oldest person to climb Mt. Everest.
At 72, Margaret Ringenberg flew around the world.
At 73, Larry King celebrated his 50th year in broadcasting.
At 74, Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps began an attempt to construct the Suez Canal.
At 75, cancer survivor Barbara Hillary became one of the oldest people, and the first black woman, to reach the North Pole.
At 76, Arthur Miller unveiled a bold new play, "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan," free of the world-weary tone of his previous works.
At 77, John Glenn became the oldest person to go into space.
At 78, Chevalier de Lamarck proposed a new theory of the evolutionary process, claiming that acquired characteristics can be transmitted to offspring.
At 79, Asa Long became the oldest U.S. checkers champion.
At 80, Christine Brown of Laguna Hills, CA, flew to China and climbed the Great Wall.
At 81, Bill Painter became the oldest person to reach the 14,411-foot summit of Mt. Rainier.
At 82, William Ivy Baldwin became the oldest tightrope walker, crossing the South Boulder Canyon in Colorado on a 320-foot wire.
At 83, famed baby doctor Benjamin Spock championed for world peace.
At 84, W. Somerset Maugham wrote "Points of View."
At 85, Theodor Mommsen became the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature.
At 86, Katherine Pelton swam the 200-meter butterfly in 3 minutes, 1.14 seconds, beating the men’s world record for that age group by over 20 seconds.
At 87, Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science Monitor.
At 88, Michelangelo created the architectural plans for the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
At 89, Arthur Rubinstein performed one of his greatest recitals in Carnegie Hall.
At 90, Marc Chagall became the first living artist to be exhibited at the Louvre museum.
At 91, Allan Stewart of New South Wales completed a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of New England.
At 92, Paul Spangler finished his 14th marathon.
At 93, P.G. Wodehouse worked on his 97th novel, was knighted and died.
At 94, comedian George Burns performed in Schenectady, NY, 63 years after his first performance there.
At 95, Nola Ochs became the oldest person to receive a college diploma.
At 96, Harry Bernstein published his first book, "The Invisible Wall," three years after he started writing to cope with loneliness after his wife of 70 years, Ruby, passed away.
At 97, Martin Miller was still working fulltime as a lobbyist on behalf of benefits for seniors.
At 98, Beatrice Wood, a ceramist, exhibited her latest work.
At 99, Teiichi Igarashi climbed Mt. Fuji.
At 100, Frank Schearer seems to be the oldest active water skier in the world.

Thank you Business Insider (of all places) for this encouragement.

 

It's My Sweetie's Birthday! Everybody Celebrate! 'Cause Now He's the Same Age as Me for Six Months!

Let's Talk About Christina Rossetti

Many people know her better than I. Who am I kidding? Everyone knows her better than I. We studied her at Jr. College. We studied her at University. But in all honesty, I don't know her very well at all. I was resistant and kind of shut down when we studied her.

You see, all my professors had the same perspective. They fawned over her religious verse, her lyrical piety. Me? Not so much. The only poem of hers I ever really knew was - surprise! surprise! - Goblin Market.

As you might imagine, this month's prompt left me a bit cold. How could possibly I write about a poet I didn't even like? What to do? What to do?

What I did was pick up my anthology, settle in with a cup of tea, and read Christina Rossetti. Surprise! I found some things I liked. In fact, I found quite a lot I liked. I recognized a sensitivity and connection to nature that I'd overlooked before, an obvious love of language, and a broad emotional range I had completely missed.

It's amazing how much state of mind can affect our interpretations. I didn't expect to see anything I liked before, so I didn't.  But when I opened my mind her gifts seemed to multiply. I'm still not enamored with all her writing, but I found much to enjoy. And even those pieces that fail to thrill me still have much to teach me.

I've chosen three poems that I enjoyed, to share with you. The images are fairly simple, but with each succeeding poem the underlying themes are more complex.

If it hadn't been for the Poetry Project I would never have given Christina Rossetti a second chance, and I'm very grateful that I did.


Clouds

White sheep, white sheep,
On a blue hill,
When the wind stops,
You all stand still.
When the wind blows,
You walk away slow.
White sheep, white sheep,
Where do you go?

Who Has Seen the Wind?

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.


A Birthday

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.

A Birthday

   by Christina Rossetti

My heart is like a singing bird   
  Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;   
My heart is like an apple-tree   
  Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;   
My heart is like a rainbow shell 
  That paddles in a halcyon sea;   
My heart is gladder than all these,   
  Because my love is come to me.   
  
Raise me a daïs of silk and down;   
  Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,   
  And peacocks with a hundred eyes;   
Work it in gold and silver grapes,   
  In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;   
Because the birthday of my life
  Is come, my love is come to me. 

A very Happy Birthday to you!