Mid Life Crisis

On 12 April 1959 (six days before I was born), John F. Kennedy delivered a speech where he told a middle american audience:

     When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters.
     One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.

Unfortunately, while there is a kernel of truth in President Kennedy's quote, what he said wasn't actually correct. The second character's meaning actually is closer to "a perilous situation." While I'm currently not in a perilously dangerous situation, I'm going to stick with the title anyway. Opportunity is present on both chaotic and calm days.  My outlook is positive. Why else would I choose age 52 as the mid-point in my life. I'm just making (and never completing) a list of what I want to accomplish. It's not so much a "bucket list" of things I want to do before I die, but more of an evolving reminder of how I want to spend my daily life.

Baseball – I’m retiring from baseball. Looking back at my performance over the past season, it is now appropriate to announce a decision made several months ago. The last pitch of my career was a bean ball that inadvertently hit an innocent bystander who walked by at the wrong time. On reflection, it’d been just as bad (or even worse) if I’d hit the person I was actually throwing at.  I thought about quietly walking away from the game, but I felt I owed it to my fans (the only ones who'll understand this item), especially the one holding a sign demanding my departure from the game.

Reading and Writing - I haven't written anything of substance for over twenty years and can't remember reading a book in the last five. I actually spend most of my waking day reading and writing, but not usually on subjects I've chosen or to the audience I most want to reach (you). A while back, my little sister sent me a piece she wrote about our Dad and I made the mistake of opening and reading it at work. I'm certain the same result would occur if I were to open it now. That's what I want to accomplish. I want to make you laugh, cry, remember, or just understand me better (look closely at the picture Carol). Most importantly, I don't want to hurt anyone. As for reading, I was given a book last Christmas by my daughter Laura. I'll read it first.

Healthy Lifestyle - Over the last few months I've been focusing my efforts on restoring the discipline I faithfully maintained during my military career. The exercise portion isn't too hard. I enjoy hiking the mountain trails around our home. I like being surrounded by nature and am encouraged by the weathered faces I encounter, energetically passing by in youthful bodies. Eating healthy food, in reasonable amounts, is the real challenge. The first step of every day is on to the scale and I’m considering having a shirt made emblazoned with “WWGE” (What Would Gary Eat). This morning I was 4.5 lbs below our starting point my portly brother.

Extravagant Purchases - Even though my mid-life crisis is somewhat contrived, I still didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to buy something. I thought about buying a sports car or a pickup, but all the walking I do is central to my "Healthy Lifestyle" objectives. Instead, I purchased a reclining chair. I could've just walked into the store and bought the thing. Instead, I accumulated the money by saving a little, here and there, from my weekly pocket money allowance. Everytime we'd go to the Exchange at Osan Air Base, I'd drag my wife Hyesuk to the furniture section to look at at it and spend a few moments reclining. After several months of listening to "just buy the stupid chair," I'd saved enough for both the chair and delivery. Hyesuk was amused, when we arrived at the Exchange only to find that someone else had already purchased my chair. As we were arranging for another chair to be shipped from stateside, I masked my disappointment by telling her how excited I was over the delay.  Not only was a meaningful price paid for my chair, but now I was given a Christmas-like anticipation over its arrival.

Accumulated Wealth - My Grandma Dorothy left this world wealthy. Her three children evenly split an inheritance of nine dollars and the little girls in the family took turns choosing pieces of her costume jewelry. At her funeral, a church full of people shared heart warming stories about her life. I was always certain that I was the most special person in the world to her, only to hear a multitude of others voice the same sincere perception. Afterwards, she was elegantly transported to her grave in a horse-drawn hearse (my Grandpa would have been pleased with his children). I'd like to achieve a similar ending, but the material aspect will be especially challenging. I suspect Bobby and Laura will still have to sort through several hundred boxes of depression glass. There is hope though. I'm down to only six antique sewing machines ;)

Hobbies - Everyone should have an activity that they enjoy. I started restoring old sewing machines shortly after I retired from the USAF. We were going out to dinner and saw an old Singer machine on the curb. HyeSuk mentioned that it reminded her of the machine she learned to sew on, so I picked it up. After replacing the power cord (everything my Dad taught me about electricity), refinishing the wood and metal, cleaning and oiling, it worked remarkably well.

I'm currently restoring a new number 23 (the old number 23 is still in Bobby's apartment in Hawaii) I'm the "I can't believe someone did that" person often mentioned on the Antique Roadshow (and really don't care) My only goal is to protect the machine from the environment and return it to an operational condition. Old sewing machines aren't worth much money, because so many were made. Even with machines over a 100 years old , it is unusual to find one that is mechanically broken.

Political Office - I'm going to run for a political office, but my aspiration will have to wait until I return to our great country. I remember standing by my Dad at the Cheyenne County Fair when he was running for County Commissioner. I still remember the answer he gave to an individual who asked why he didn't have any bumper stickers or campaign buttons, "I'm not going to spend money on things I don't need and I'll treat your money the same way."

Wisdom -  I think I'll enjoy this category.  Over the years, I've been involved in enough foolishness to have learned a little the hard way about its  antonym.   Fortunately, "where you end up is more dependent on the direction you're currently heading than where you started out from."  While searching the Internet to see if I'd stolen someone else's words I came up with another interesting quote by Lao Tsu, "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."