If he truly didn’t care he wouldn’t have written that essay. 
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For me, one of the unexpected joys of getting just a bit older (46 now) is needing less sleep. Sleep feels a bit more optional than it used to. Norm for me now is about 6 hours per night. At the weekend, I got 6 hours across two nights because of being at a festival, and still felt fine afterwards. Somehow, this seems to compensate a little for physical characteristics that have certainly declined due to age, such as strength, speed, memory, and eyesight (I can no longer see anything other than blobs without my glasses). It certainly gives me a bit more time than i used to have.
I just ran across this post. Amazing. I am a mental health therapist and I found this so inspiring and spot on. I am 62 as well and plan to retire in 3-4 years (depending on finance and health). I LOVE that you start with “Inward” and “Outward” in the center and go in both direction from there. This is how I define “Equanimity” which to me is an ever-elusive but always justified aspirational goal. I plan to use this diagram for my own plans and hope you don’t mind if I share this with some of my clients who might find it very useful.
Here’s an illustration of “Equanimity” that I use as a handout sometimes in my therapy practice:
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I have found this thread very inspiring, all the way through. Everyone ages. Everyone eventually dies. There is nothing to me more valuable than stepping back to take a look at the bigger picture of our lives and ask questions like, “Are you where you hoped to be by now, and if not, why not and what can you do to get there?” “Do you like the person you’ve become so far at this point in your life and are you headed toward a better version of yourself going into the future?” “If you died tomorrow, and you had a few minutes to ponder, would you be able to say, ‘I had a good run, for as long as it lasted?’”
I remember meeting with an ex-girlfriend when she was in her mid-40s (we’d dated in our late teens and early 20s), she’d had several children, gained weight, and gravity pulled at her face and body (of course). She was embarrassed and shy about her appearance, apologized for looking “old” and “worn out” and “flabby.” I looked at her and said, “20 years ago, when I told you I loved you, I meant that I loved all of you, the whole life of you, the you that was 5, and 10, 20, 30, 50 and 80.” Back then, I had an image of what you might look like at all those ages, and there is nothing about the way you look that changes any of that for me. It will always be true, no matter your age or appearance." I tell this story as a way to say, I think we can both value the moment, the day, the month, the year and the whole life we’ve been given. This also leads to perspective, proportionality and maybe even (but not necessarily) wisdom. As Socrates (and the Matrix) says: “know thyself.”
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I’m just super stoked I woke up this morning!
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Loved and saved this.
I’m 37, and it feels like just yesterday I was going to parties with friends in HS, getting hammered and stoned as often as possible. Now I’m a recovering alcoholic and the only time I see 3 AM is if I have coffee too late in the day. Physically healthy, down to about 165 and just need to start building up strength again.
My dad is 66 and is still a powerful 220 lbs, still benching 315 somehow. 3 drinks a night, as well (not alcoholic like myself), but in great health.
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I’m so jealous of my dad. He is 88 and travels around the world fly fishing. He was always in great shape, did the Ironman many times and ran ultra marathons till he was 60.
I, on the other hand, have thyroid and gout problems and etc, etc. At least I have SOME of his genes so maybe I will still be exploring at 80 but I doubt it!
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Hey Michael. Thanks for your response. It was a nice thing to wake up to after fighting a cold for the last 5 days. It genuinely made me smile. I’m really glad it inspired you and feel free to use it as you wish with no attribution necessary. Your equanimity diagram hit me like a brick. I’ve been realising lately I’m happiest when I accept that things are the way they are. It’s such a nuanced realisation but your diagram and text stuck to me. I hope you enjoy planning and executing your retirement. My next quest is about reducing my attachment to material things which is pretty ironic given the number of synths I own. I’d like to reach a balance where I enjoy them but if they were to disappear I would just keep going. Anyway. Great thread. Gonna reread a bunch of posts over a coffee. All my best.
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This really hits harder as I’ve grown older…
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I am glad my post cheered you up @cixelsyd (James). I had a feeling my diagram would spark something with you, given the central location of “Inner” and “Outer” in your diagram.
Good balance. I too have a lot of synths I’ve purchased over the years. Some of them were definitely GAS or just impulse purchases because they were steeply discounted. Most, though, were well considered, researched and viable buying decisions based on my love of sound design. With all things, I try to find a balance between healthy transcendence and unhealthy escape or distraction. GAS is obviously the latter. By “transcendence” I mean “you take you with you when you go there.” When I am scrolling through the thread “what’s your latest purchase” or watching a bunch of random YouTube videos about a bunch of new stuff I might want, I am distracting myself, and the me that is me is not really even present. When I am seriously considering the purchase of something I might want to add to my sound creation library and it is deliberate, I am there. When I am sitting down with a synth and really trying to get something cool going, I am right there, present, and enthralled.
Also, I am sober, have been in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction for a long time. So, yes I have a tendency toward addictive behavior, and GAS is part of that. If I keep it under control, which I mostly do (post-pandemic anyway), then I tell myself, “there are much worse things I could be spending my money on.” Some consolation, as long as it doesn’t slide into excuses.
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Anyway, how’s getting old going for y’all? Please share!
Mixed!
Physically - although I’m not falling apart - I’m definitely not as spry as I used to be.
I’ve got numerous minor ailments that vary from bearable to bloody annoying depending on their severity and my mood.
Psychologically - I’m about the same with some slight improvement: I’m happy in summer and sad in winter. I’ve far more stamina and patience than I used to have. I’ve still got a short fuse but I’m better at managing that and my self-talk’s less self-hating than it used to be.
Spiritually - I don’t do spirituality. I have done it, it didn’t go well, and that’s why I don’t do it any more.
Mentally - I’m still interested in everything & anything. Drives me mad sometimes - can’t seem to keep on topic for more than 3 sentences before I drift off in some other direction. I’ll never lack for entertainment though. How could anyone be bored with so much stuff to know and learn?
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it is interesting that science has yet to in any way really understand consciousness - where it operates physically in the human body and onward across the spectrum as to how it might relate to the new wave of AI hypothesis about machines gaining consciousness. Whether everything is conscious to some extent simply by virtue of being an object (eg a tree).
I’ll just leave this here… 
Wait. Did I write this and forget. Most is spot on for me.
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OMG that presentation reminds me so much of my philosophy degree, esp. the idea that “bedrock reality is mental, not physical and the physical is derived from the mental” and Pat’s opening discussion of “we tend to think of experience as a unified whole”.
I sense there will be a great deal of terminological / linguistic confusion & nit-picking and the end result will be far less enlightening than it promises to be!
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Yes. You are I as I are you and we are few, …
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