Hit and Miss

Last night I went to see a series of films by a young Irish filmmaker (maybe around 40) and hear her discuss them. I’d say they were a bit avant-garde, and so I struggled to make sense of them. In one, a teenage version of her traipsed around Ireland, England and Italy with a shopping trolley--a fabric-covered, wheelie thing that people shop with here. I can’t explain the film any better than that.

Today I didn’t do any work for Preventable Surprises or for my three recent freelance assignments--it was my first day off in several weeks. I wrote a long letter to an old friend, sat and reminisced about hikes we went on together, read the paper, and wrote something in my journal that I thought was profound. The short version is: I’m grateful that, at this stage in life (I’m 54), I’m still learning. How I see myself as a person and in relation to others is still evolving. I think that’s a good thing. I don’t want to settle for the status quo if I think I can do a better job--be a better person. Would having a fixed knowledge and perception of yourself and your relation to others be comforting? Or stifling? I don’t think I’ll ever know because I’ve found at different stages of life I learn different things about myself and I find that rather exciting.

10-21