NEW DIRECTIONS?

MY, MY...OVER TWO MONTHS, since my last posting!

As you can see, I have not died.

When I wrote that last posting, I really had no idea of what might be ahead of me.  On the other hand, can one ever know what is ahead!  Is that light at the end of the tunnel daylight gleaming the end of darkness, or is it the headlamp of the train that has just entered the tunnel?

Do not be concerned, I do not intend to bore you with the litany of recent troubles, except to report that getting rid of two one centimetre ball-bearing-like stones from within one's bladder can be a very good move.  Life has been a little chaotic due to some remodelling work, mainly to do with converting the lower floor of my home into an apartment, now all done and leaving me to restore some order and get on with things I want to do.

I started the '...accordingtoRoberto' blogs about a decade ago in response to some friends suggesting that I write about my various adventures.  But which adventures?  Looking back on postings (is this why folk write blogs, a form of keeping a diary?), I see that I have written about many things.  Not all would appear to be adventures and what seemed like adventures to me might have seemed mundane to many of you.  I have one reader who, with her partner, goes all about the globe looking after other people's houses.  That seems pretty exciting.  Another is required by her sister to travel to
France to look after her house and her dogs from time to time.  Oh dear, someone has to do that sort of thing!

Is riding a bicycle and pulling a suitcase transmogrified into a trailer from Quebec to Montreal the sort of adventure you readers might want to know about? Or working on an organic farm in the Pyrenees for a couple of weeks (WWOOF, WWOOF*)?  Or going to Costa Rica for dental work?  Or remodeling a house?  There were some things that seemed like adventures to me that I refrained reporting, like some 200 books I read in the first two years that I came to live here, happily surfing topics as many and diverse as my heart desired. Or like going on hut-to-hut cross country skiing across the border in Canada for a week? Or even the miracle of composting?

Perhaps the most exciting adventures have been in theology, an original and persistent interest (some of you will know that my first career was in the Christian ministry), evolutionary biology, and cosmology. Long term followers of my blogs will also recall the brief existence of the series, 'beliefaccordingtoRoberto', which is still up if you want to look at it.  These are areas that I did not count as general interest although I may yet touch on them. Not so much fun was trying to understand how cancer begins, progresses, and results in death.

What might I write of in the future I wonder, and ought I seek to tell you only of things that I think you might find interesting?

The truth seems to be that I find myself in a very curious place.  My life appears to lack, for the first time, 'intention'.  This is hard to write about...and perhaps I mean to say that it lacks the property of 'in order to...'?  This last year has brought some close touches with dying and death.  Yet I am unconcerned about my dying.  What concerns me is that now, at the age of 80 years, I very likely still have quite a deal of time left to me (barring the unpredictable, of course), since I may carry the genes of longevity (my mother lived to 102, and my two half brothers, one on my mother's side and the other on my father's, are now into their 90s.  What I fear, like many my age, is the onset of dementia, and an inability to care for myself.  I know what can offset these: eat properly, be active, stretch one's mind, maintain social ties, and so on.  Above all, I desire a life that is interesting and interested.

Perhaps my pursuit of these essential goals may be interesting to you?

Here is what is currently to hand: via CoursEra, six weeks online study of epigenetics at Melbourne University, travel to India and Nepal in October, some hut-to-hut skiing in Maine, relearning some cross country skiing skills in Colorado, and more exploration of Costa Rica.  I think that there may be some matters of interest here and there worth reporting.  Please do let me know and, as we have noted from time to time:

Watch this space!

*WWOOF:  Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms