In my early 70s (not THE early 70s) I discovered, without having had the benefit of being properly schooled for old age planning, that “long-term lifetime goals” have become “longish term waistline objectives” over maybe the next decade or so.
The retiring, too quickly transpiring, nature of these hoped for outcomes has also triaged down to a more responsible mature adult scale of peace-making literacy:
good health plans for resilient physical dexterity,
(used to be sexual athleticism)
good humored anticipation of resonant mental acuity,
(used to be world-famous genius)
and good faith passion for integrity
(used to be making a living by doing something not hopelessly toxic to everyone, everything, everywhere, all the time).
Big surprise in the gerontology department, lesser quantity of life, but healthier qualities of love.
A Taoist’s pronoia version of fair trade.
(used to mean not-fair-trade paranoia about getting ripped off by suspiciously threatening Others, God, Aliens, Big Brother, Artificial Intelligence, Big Pharma, Big Government, Big Bullies, too much over-capitalized, and weaponized, Bigness, etc.)
Now I practice compassion-engaging faith and humor and health by responding to systemic TrumPublican trauma with music and movement therapy, and writing sexual politics poetry, for which there is not a large commercial market, and practicing good liturgical song and dance.
Now in my 70s, I’ve also noticed that good sacred music, like good humor, and good health, is not just about commitment to the stretching movement, but also to the silent rest.
gdill52 