We talked in class yesterday about the U-curve, that curious phenomenon Susan Neiman mentions whereby people past the halfway mark of life (which varies from culture to culture and country to country) get happier and happier as time goes by. Students are surprised to hear it, but those of us of a certain age know it's generally true.
But why? On further reflection, and in light of Garrison Keillor's little vignette in my in-box this morning, I think it's because age brings perspective and greater appreciation for just being alive. He says he was at one of those sub-standard generic motel breakfast bars and struck up a conversation with a stranger.
At that dreadful breakfast, I met a man who came up as I was pouring myself a cup of coffee so I poured him one. He was a soybean farmer who also raised sheep and we talked about that for a minute. Parenting is brief, he said, the lambs are weaned at two months and the rams have no parenting responsibility whatsoever, it’s just hit and run, and by thirteen months, the ewes are ready for breeding. He said that soybean farming is looking somewhat hopeful although a couple years ago he lost his whole crop to a hailstorm and almost had to sell the farm.
“So what is the fun in farming?” I said.
“Being outdoors on a beautiful day,” he said. “Knowing other people are shut up in offices and you’re on a tractor and it’s 75 and sunny and you can smell the vegetation and hear the sheep talking.”
“In other words, just being alive,” I said.
“That’s exactly right.”
It is, isn't it? Most of us are too busy, most of the time prior to the bend in the U, to just soak up the sun and inhale the peat and listen to the sheep. We'd be happier earlier, if we did that more often.
Those are my thoughts, as I prepare to pack for the funeral.
Absolutely!
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