1. I had never thought of this until now: for decades, I looked to older writers for insight, guidance, challenge, and reading pleasure. It struck me today that now that I'm seventy-one years old, I don't have as many elders to look to, but am, in fact, guided, challenged, and delighted by younger writers.
I like this.
I realized today that this is a carry over from all those years I was an instructor.
Students I worked with simply knew more than I did about all sorts of things, ranging from living on the streets to having survived violence at home to reading books, listening to music, and watching movies I'd never heard of to having worship experiences I was not familiar with to raising and caring for all kinds of animals to working in the woods to -- well, you get the point.
Among my favorite features of being a community college instructor was having students of all ages, from 15 to 70 (at least) enrolled in courses I offered. I often had students work on projects in small groups and from time to time, especially early in the term, older students would complain to me about having to work with younger students.
The complaint commonly went something like this: "What do I have to learn from these young kids?"
I'd say something like, "Well, hang in there. Let's see where this goes."
Inevitably, as the term progressed, I could see these older students enjoying their younger classmates more and more. Some older students came to me and reported that they'd been wrong when they complained.
They were learning a lot from these younger kids.
2. If you've been reading this blog over the last several months, you know that much of my reading has been guided by Leah Sottile. a free lance journalist and writer living in Portland who must be about 25-30 years younger than I am.
She's become for me what my elders used to be.
Back in December, Leah Sottile wrote an essay at her Substack site (the site's name is "The Truth Does Not Change with Our Ability to Stomach It") entitled "Some Very Good Writing" and listed, with comments, ten articles her readers could click on and read, articles that inspired her in 2024.
Over the last two days, I read them.
If you'd like to check out Sotille's list and her reflections, just go here.
You can read about a corrupt oncologist in Helena, an artist in Portland whose severe mental illness left him homeless and drug addicted, an unsolved murder of a grandmother outside Missoula, a writer's experience bringing a sweet and anxious dog into her home, and more.
3. As I stumble and bumble my way through life day to day, every once in a while I do something smart.
I remarked today to Debbie that in recent months I've managed to do three smart things.
I bought a wok.
I bought a moka pot to make espresso coffee.
I bought a milk steamer/frother.
Tonight I made a chicken stir fry with a lot of vegetables and created a no recipe stir fry sauce and as Debbie and I enjoyed our dinner, I had to stop and smile and reflect on how much I enjoy the wok and how good it felt to have done something smart!
