Date: July 9th, 2023
Time: 11.24pm
As the countdown towards the last moments that I will be 64 years old counts down; I began to ponder….Hmmn…”65 years old”. I began to compare my dad, his siblings and friends that used to frequently visit us when I was just a teenager….not too long ago….in the 1970s.
Back in the good old days…way back in the mid ’70s, 1970s that is; “ooo weee ooo…I love the rock n roll days”: Lobo’s Rock And Roll Days song comes to mind.
Coming back to being 65 and in the 1970s. We used to think of these people being so old…light years away from us. I think we were surrounded by people who labeled people past 50 as old folks. People of that era who were just creeping past 50, were already planning or /and looking forward to retirement. The old folk of that age spent mornings gathered at the coffee shop (today more popularly known as restaurants), sipping black local coffee, eating two half-boiled eggs with pepper peppered in for additional taste. Some would be reading newspapers. They while their time away towards mid-morning.
A few of them will head to their remisier’s office, sit in front of a small 14 inch or 20 inch black & white tube tv monitor and stare at the screen, watching prices of stock go up and down. These are the “investors”. At a moment’s move up or down, they instruct their remisier to buy or sell their shares. This was the usual daily routine of these “old folks” which they found self-fulfilling.
I am not belittling anyone of that era or maybe still in that “style” of living. It was (is?) an era I took note of and told myself that I have to keep active. From that time, I said that I want to be active, that there is so much to do and live, though I did not know what the “so much to do and live” meant. Maybe, I am a rebel of sorts?
I mean it never dawned on me how close “65” is from when I was a teenager. Well, the reality is 65 is here and now.
Having worked several career paths in my working life (stereotyped to be between 20 years and 60 years of age), I now write. Have been doing so for the past couple of years or more. When I first started journalising life and things as I see them, I had hopes that it would impact the lives of people in a good way. I wanted to make a dent in the world. From the responses of thousands of people from over 80 countries, many telling me how the articles I write, resonates with them in their own life experiences, I plan to keep on going. To make a bigger dent in the world. As Reverend Father Simon La Brooy in his homily at mass this morning in St Thomas More Church, Subang Jaya (2) said, “It is the experiences of life” that was and is important to him. As it is to me, as well.
None of my articles have been done with Artificial Intelligence…wait a minute…does that mean I have real intelligence or the semblance of it? None of it with ChatBGT or is it ChatGTB? ChatGBT?
I am having fun writing. Is it because it is a new found feature in my life? Not really. I have had this “feature” or skill since I was very young (now, at 65: I am a bit older). The late Brother Harold Reynolds, headmaster of La Salle School, Klang (2) (during my time as a student); always, always, always encouraged me to take up journalism. He said I had a natural talent for it. However, at that time, I wanted to try out new ideas. Oh yeah. “There’s no try. Just do”. Haha.
I was in Mid-Valley Shopping Mall, Kuala Lumpur (3); earlier on this evening, when I purchased this Crumpler bag (love the colour) for me to carry more tools of the writing trade if and when necessary.
Being 65 for me is just getting started. I have a very, very long list of things that I want to do. Don’t ask me to list them out. Haven’t figured out what they are yet. It will come as time goes on. I only plan on retiring at 120 (years, that is).😁
Looking forward to spending the day with Jeannie and Laura…❤️
NOTE:
1. I deliberately write in the present and past tense to give a sort of flavoring to this essay.
2. Subang Jaya and Klang are cities in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
3. Kuala Lumpur is a city in Malaysia.