Confidence

I've got into the habit, in recent months— years, really— of confiding more pre-dawn reflections to my private Moleskine journal  than to Up@dawn. But this entry, for some reason, feels like one to share:

Yesterday in class was one of those days when the conversations—on consciousness, the importance of habit, the experience of grief, the acknowledgment of mortality— reminded me why I teach, and why my work matters… to me, at least.

I am so grateful that, unlike so many, I don't have to get up each day and go to a job making or selling widgets (or their moral equivalent) and peddling absurdities. I should be quite confident, before I retire, that I'm going to find a way to keep filling my days with meaningful activity. 

WE need to be confident we're doing everything in our power to avoid joining the unhappy ranks of Americans— 7 in 10, by one accounting— who say, shockingly, that they expect to age ungracefully and unhappily in their 70s and beyond. ("49% of adults ages 65 and older say they are aging extremely or very well": let's stick with them.)

"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be…"