From the time I was about ten, I began a pattern of self-analysis, setting goals, and making long-range plans that, unfortunately, most people in the 1960’s dismissed as “foolish flights of fantasy”.
We were always encouraged to take a “safe route” because “You’re less likely to be hurt when you don’t achieve your far-fetched dreams”.
I divided my life into three parts because I believed that I would probably live to be about 87 or 88. I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish by the time I was 29, by the time I was 58 and by the time I was 87 or 88. In addition, each year during my birthday month (October), I would make a list of goals for the coming year and check off those from the previous year that I’d accomplished. I would also note other achievements during the prior year.
To anyone who only lives in the moment (and there are certainly good things to be said about that), my analytical way seemed like a lot of work.
I love spontaneity and subscribe to that frequently, but I also like to know where I’ve been, where I want to go and how I am doing on that journey.
Using the formula of breaking my life down into thirds means that I am currently in the early stages of my last third. Perhaps I should break it into quarters which would put me somewhere in the third quarter?
The first two thirds of my life were spelled out quite bluntly in my book, “Was That a Name I Dropped?” No need to rehash the dazzling highs and devastating lows that seem a constant and often unwelcome companion.
What I hadn’t expected, however, was how exhilarating the last third would be. I assumed, as some do, that it would encompass a slowing down period and a time for reflection. I also believed that any challenges that presented themselves would be on a more minor scale. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Since the book came out two years ago, I have found myself busier than I’ve ever been in my life, meeting a whole new array of opportunities and not saying “no” or “I’ll have to think about it”, to very many of them.
It’s as though writing expansively about my life, freed me to explore other avenues, take risks that I might have avoided, and find an excitement in everyday life that makes me keenly anticipate the start of each day.
Had someone asked me if I wanted to be a blogger a few years ago, I would have laughed and told them, “No way!”. I never paid attention to other people’s blogs on the Internet and certainly couldn’t imagine myself sitting down and doing it. Besides, I thought that writing the book had probably exorcised the writer within.
Today I look forward to blogging for WKXL and for Concord Patch and love the freedom it gives me to share, express and sometimes educate as well as entertain. The response I receive from readers makes me glad I finally tried this path and grateful to those who stop and read my sometimes random thoughts.
Receiving a Media Award this past spring from the Concord Grange was certainly the icing on the cake. While I often received a Gold Star on the forehead from the nuns for writing something especially well, I never considered what I wrote to be award worthy.
I’ve sought out new opportunities to volunteer for local non-profits and despite a life long discomfort in standing in front of a room filled with people and having to talk, without the comfort of slipping into a stage role, I accepted dozens of speaking engagements that were offered as a result of the book. These ranged from the Nackey Loeb School of Communications to Plymouth State, UNH School of Law and PFLAG.
The old fears and trepidation would surface but I refused to decline an invitation and with each speaking gig, it got a little easier.
As a teenager I was urged to go to Plymouth State with the goal of becoming a teacher, a goal that was not my own.
Today I regularly teach and present as part of the OLLI Program at Granite State College in Concord. In fact I am teaching three classes this fall and loving every moment of it. Who’d have thought that 40 years or so after bailing out of Plymouth after one dismal semester, that I would be teaching?
Finally, the thought of hosting a radio show was never paramount in any life plan I might have had. Yes, I petitioned Disney to bring me to California, screen test me and star me in a series of family films in the 1960’s, but that was different.
When WKXL invited me to do a weekly radio show, “Downtown Dialogues”, I accepted because it was a challenge and having guested on “NH Now”, I liked what I saw and felt when I was at the station. The station name was the same as the one I knew growing up but there was a new energy, vitality and edginess that was compelling. I wanted to be a part of WKXL’s new era just as I was beginning to understand that the “new era” of my life predicated by the “latest third”, meant facing every challenge and opportunity head-on. Sure I might fail, but that’s a far better scenario than wondering, “Should I have tried?”
From all reports the show, which is still a work in progress, is reaching an audience. People are listening and some are commenting to me about it when they see me around town.
I don’t want to define the show as a political show, although I have politicians as guests. Nor do I want to define it as a “what’s going on in Concord” type of show, although there is certainly a need and my show does tap into that need.
More than anything I want the show to be entertaining, insightful, and informative. I want listeners to get to know some of the people behind the headlines but also those amazing Concord folks who, daily, toil in our local businesses and provide services and contribute, amazingly, to the fabric of the community.
I want the show to be unpredictable by mixing it up with a variety of voices, opinions and ideas so that someone who doesn’t know Concord but tunes in on their way through town, will be curious enough to want to know more about our city.
We have some amazing people living and working here and if I can spotlight some of them, then I have accomplished what I set out to do.
Recently WKXL has asked me to do a second weekly broadcast of “Downtown Dialogues” and it didn’t take any prodding for me to enthusiastically agree.
Will people respond to a second weekly show? I hope so, because my wish list of guests is getting longer and longer and I relish the thought of talking with each and every one of them.
At this stage in my life I am not looking to start a new career and its certainly not about the need to feed my ego. Instead, it is about an opportunity to share my heartfelt love for Concord as well as let others know that life after 58 can hold just as many fascinations and new opportunities as you felt when you were handed that high school Diploma, all those many years ago.
As long as your mind is curious and open, what waits around the corner might be the best thing that ever happened to you.
