Aging

We often get so preoccupied with age that we miss that mastery in front of our nose. Is she old enough to run that company? Is he young enough to be dating her?

A couple of years ago, I wrote a LinkedIn article on “The Advice I Wish I’d Been Given at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50.” Having just turned 60, and being an Abraham Maslow devotee, I wanted to organize my thinking on this subject around the hierarchy of needs for each decade of our lives.

It is now early November 2020, and has been a little more than two weeks since the passing of my 88-year-old father Joseph Cardinale. It was both sad to see my father pass away as well as a reminder that each of us will one day shrug off these mortal coils. No matter your religious or spiritual belief, we all viscerally understand that each of us has a start date as well as an end date on this little blue rock.

David Whyte is one of my favorite poet/philosophers. In this practical ruminating essay, he outlines 10 questions that have no right to go away including “Do I know how to have a real conversation?” and “Am I too inflexible in my relationship to time?” But, my favorite is his question that defines today’s post and his juicy gems below.

I’m not sure if it’s the pandemic times we live in or the age that I’m inhabiting, but I’ve noticed each morning I’m consulting the Obituary section of the paper before the Sports page. Victor Hugo suggested, “40 is the old age of youth, and 50 is the young of old age.” So, what the heck is 60?

Do you ever wistfully reflect on your ability as a teenager to enjoy nine-hour uninterrupted stretches of restorative sleep on a regular basis, without any effort? How easy it was to take that for granted. Unfortunately, as we get older, it becomes hard for us to get that kind of sleep-- in both quantity and quality.

Weird subject given I just had my 60th birthday. Here in Todos Santos, most gringos live north of town. What we call “El Otro Lado” or the other side. “The other side” has another meaning here at MEA, one that revolves around our love for the film, “Coco,” which is a Pixar ode to Dia de los Muertos.

Thank you to Alan Watts who wrote this (excerpted) as a reminder that a momentous life is full of moments. It’s not all about the destination or exit. A good reminder on my 60th birthday when I was originally supposed to be at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, a place Watts called his “om away from home” for many years.

As I hit the big 6-0 tomorrow, I’ve tried reconnecting with Ian Brown’s “Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty First Year,” but I find his kvetching to be insufferable, so I turn to Henry Miller which seems apt since I was supposed to be at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur this weekend which was Henry Miller’s spiritual home.

Let’s keep the Japanese theme going from yesterday. When I joined Airbnb, CEO Brian Chesky told me he was obsessed with the Japanese documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” Then, three months later, we moved into our enormous new headquarters and there was a “Jiro” meeting room designed after the subway sushi bar depicted in the film.