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Feeling no pain
Jan has gone down to the South Coast for a few days visiting relations. This leaves me free to potter about getting on with chores around our little flat. Stereo on and a very nice Rioja breathing in the kitchen. We live and work together 24/7 so a break away does us no harm. I retire at the end of the year and we will work around a month of the year for our favorite clients. That is until total decrepitude takes me over, lets face it, you don’t have to be in tip top form to hold a camera.
For my last years all I want is a good roof over my head, a warm clean bed, some good books, some quality grub, a bottle of reasonable wine, my fishing club and and our big music collection. I almost forgot, my Jan, the finest human being I ever met. We do our best to be wanderers.
I left school at fifteen, I have worked for fifty years, never out of work, I have been very lucky. I reckon I have earned a few good years in retirement. So what have I learned? That less is often far more, that money and wealth does not make a man happy. That health and the love and loyalty of family and friends is the most important thing in this life.
Many years ago, and when a young man, I read a book by the actor Sterling Hayden called the Wanderer. It had a profound effect on me then, and to this day . A passage from this great book.
“So it is no wonder that the mass of people regard the wanderer as a cross between a romantic vagabond and an irresponsible semi-ne’er-do-well who can’t-or won’t-fit in. Which is not to say that those who are fated to stay at home and toe the line do not look at the wanderer with envy and, yes, even awe, for he is doing what they would like to be doing, and something tells them they will never do it unless they either “strike it rich” or retire -and once retirement rolls around, chances are it will be too late. They know that too.
This would seem to mean that the whole thing is largely a matter of luck, with which I would be the first to agree, having been blessed with good fortune through most of my working life. But I would be remiss if I didn’t add that if you want to wander, you’re going to have to work at it and give up the one thing that most non-wanderers prize so highly-the illusion of security.
I say “illusion” because the most “secure” people I’ve encountered are, when you come right down to it, the least secure once they have been removed from job and home and bank account. While those unfortunate enough to be locked into some despised and unrewarding job are even worse off. And if I have been favoured with good luck all down the years, I can also quickly single out scores of men and women spread around this beleaguered old world who, without “luck”, have managed to live lives of freedom and adventure (that curious word) beyond the wildest dreams of the stay-at-homes who, when fresh out of school, opted for that great destroyer of men’s souls, security.”
In my opinion a truly great book, and the way I try to live my life. I have often failed but I try.
ISBN 978-1-57409-048-2
Jan has gone down to the South Coast for a few days visiting relations. This leaves me free to potter about getting on with chores around our little flat. Stereo on and a very nice Rioja breathing in the kitchen. We live and work together 24/7 so a break away does us no harm. I retire at the end of the year and we will work around a month of the year for our favorite clients. That is until total decrepitude takes me over, lets face it, you don’t have to be in tip top form to hold a camera.
For my last years all I want is a good roof over my head, a warm clean bed, some good books, some quality grub, a bottle of reasonable wine, my fishing club and and our big music collection. I almost forgot, my Jan, the finest human being I ever met. We do our best to be wanderers.
I left school at fifteen, I have worked for fifty years, never out of work, I have been very lucky. I reckon I have earned a few good years in retirement. So what have I learned? That less is often far more, that money and wealth does not make a man happy. That health and the love and loyalty of family and friends is the most important thing in this life.
Many years ago, and when a young man, I read a book by the actor Sterling Hayden called the Wanderer. It had a profound effect on me then, and to this day . A passage from this great book.
“So it is no wonder that the mass of people regard the wanderer as a cross between a romantic vagabond and an irresponsible semi-ne’er-do-well who can’t-or won’t-fit in. Which is not to say that those who are fated to stay at home and toe the line do not look at the wanderer with envy and, yes, even awe, for he is doing what they would like to be doing, and something tells them they will never do it unless they either “strike it rich” or retire -and once retirement rolls around, chances are it will be too late. They know that too.
This would seem to mean that the whole thing is largely a matter of luck, with which I would be the first to agree, having been blessed with good fortune through most of my working life. But I would be remiss if I didn’t add that if you want to wander, you’re going to have to work at it and give up the one thing that most non-wanderers prize so highly-the illusion of security.
I say “illusion” because the most “secure” people I’ve encountered are, when you come right down to it, the least secure once they have been removed from job and home and bank account. While those unfortunate enough to be locked into some despised and unrewarding job are even worse off. And if I have been favoured with good luck all down the years, I can also quickly single out scores of men and women spread around this beleaguered old world who, without “luck”, have managed to live lives of freedom and adventure (that curious word) beyond the wildest dreams of the stay-at-homes who, when fresh out of school, opted for that great destroyer of men’s souls, security.”
In my opinion a truly great book, and the way I try to live my life. I have often failed but I try.
ISBN 978-1-57409-048-2
