There are just too many interesting things to do in your life, and nowhere near enough life to do them all. And, depressingly, some of those things you never got around to doing are a little difficult to accomplish when you get older. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know – there are hundreds of 90-year-olds that climb mountains, right? So it’s just a matter of setting my mind to it. After all, I’m not 100 yet. Heh, right, like that’s going to happen.
It’s actually true that I once thought I would like to do rock climbing, but it’s also true that to try to do so now would be more death wish fulfillment than dream fulfillment. I’m long past my rock climbing days, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other things I wish I had done, or could do. I would have liked to have hiked the wilderness, seen more of the world, and participated in archeological digs. I once wanted to have draft horses and log with them on my own property. Now, time, physical condition and money conspire to keep me grounded in reality.
But there are still plenty of pursuits that can be followed, even from a bed if necessary. I always wanted to be a writer. I would like to write computer programs and know more about electronics. I still enjoy working in the woodshop (if I could ever get it even half-way organized) and learning new things there. And those are just a few things currently on my list.
So it comes down, as it always does, to setting priorities. And that’s what started me off on this post. There are just too many interesting things to do in your life, and nowhere near enough life to do them all. I guess it’s good that some things must of necessity fall to the wayside as ones physical condition changes. It is a kind of automatic thinning of the possibilities, leaving you with fewer options that should, theoretically, be easier to manage. The funny thing is, the longer I live, the more interesting things I find to do, and a lot of those things are not physically demanding enough to eliminate them as options.
Oh well, better to die with too many things on my plate than to die with an empty plate. If ever I find my fork empty, then I will indeed know that it is time to go. However, I just don’t see how that will ever happen.