This Is Really Fun...

Who says being old is boring.

I’m very excited. This evening is the “fiesta de lanzamiento” - launch party - for my latest book, which was just published in Spanish. Many of you know this is my sixth book, but it’s the first one that’s been translated into Spanish, and I’m so happy and proud to be able to share it with my friends here, and with everyone else in my adopted city of Oviedo and country of Spain.

AND…

And the most exciting part, for me, is that I’m going to be doing the “presentación” - (the spoken introduction to the book) in Spanish. It will be the first time in my 10-year learning journey that I will be speaking to a group in public in Spanish.

I’m slightly nervous, but mostly full of joy and anticipation (it helps that it’s a completely loving and supportive group of friends). It feels like a wonderful challenge, and I’m very proud of myself for having persisted in my language learning to the point of even being able to attempt it.

Who knew?

If you had told me, in my 30s or 40s, that my 70s would be the most fun decade so far, I simply wouldn’t have believed you. My internalized societal ageism would have had me believe that my 70s, 80s and 90s would be quiet, small, mostly boring and repetitious.

But it turns out this third act (or Q3 into Q4, as Avivah Wittenberg-Cox would say), is none of that. It’s more a like a design-your-own-adventure book from the 80s (I helped my friend Mitch Ditkoff build one of those, and I remember the wonderful feeling of choice it created). And Ann Richardson tells me that the 80s are even better than the 70s...

Even if you’re dealing with difficulties or obstacles, as many of us are, you can still decide to design your way around them so as to end up with your best life.

Oh, and I haven’t forgotten that I’m going to die - and sooner rather than later. In fact, that makes me want even more to make these last decades as lovely and rich as possible (as Karen Salmansohn so entertainingly encourages us to do).

The Luxury of Time

Having time, opportunity and bandwidth to explore is a gift, and creates so many marvelous options. In previous decades, when I was raising my children and building my business, I mostly had to focus on learning the things that would make me a better parent or a better businessperson.

Now I can learn and do pretty much whatever the hell I want.

Learn Spanish, for instance, or work to integrate into the culture and society of Asturias. Or start playing the trumpet again, after forty years. Or get serious about my practice of yoga. Or figure out how to stay deeply connected with our kids and grandkids, even though they’re thousands of miles away. Or spend 3 hours on a Thursday afternoon enjoying sobremesa (which means, basically, hanging out after a meal talking and laughing) with a group of international friends. Or exploring various cities in Spain and other countries in Europe. Or….

You get the idea.

To Summarize

In other words, I’m seeing this part of life as my reward for all the hard work I put in during the past 50 years. It’s kind of like heaven on earth.

And, yes, I know I’m incredibly fortunate, and there are a lot of people who aren’t in my situation.

Still, I would love to encourage anyone who’s in this part of life to make a new assumption: this third act can be fascinating, challenging and fun. I invite you - insofar as possible - to make it fully yours, to make it what you want it to be.

Here’s to creating a final chapter that’s the one best ever.

P.S.

Here’s the Amazon link if you’re interested in finding out more about La nueva vejez - the Spanish version of The New Old.