Time Archives - The Aging Artist

Sunrise, Sunset

Day by Day

Last week I got up early to ski, and marveled at the sunrise. What a beautiful start to the day! What will the time ahead bring?

I had fun cruising the ski runs. The day passed quickly and before long the sun was setting over Martock

I was reminded of the lyrics of from the musical, Fiddler on the Roof:

… sunrise, sunset
sunrise, sunset,
swiftly flow the days.
seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
blossoming even as we gaze.

sunrise, sunset
sunrise, sunset
swiftly fly the years,
one season following another,
laiden with happiness and tears…

I can feel the days pass by with each sunset. I wish I could slow down time.

With each sunrise the world slowly changes . I wonder how this slow change will transform as the future unfolds. How far into the future could I look?

1 Day Ahead

Personally not much changes over one day. My heart beats an extra 72,000 times, and I walk another 8000 steps. My calendar contains events similar to today. There is laughter and conversation and joy and sorrow all mixed together. Life seems comfortable and predictable.

1 Year Ahead

In one year my life would not change too much, I can expect some aging to occur. I will have problems maintaining my health and my possessions. World politics will remain turbulent. There will be unforeseen personal and societal events events that could drastically change my life. I should have the resources to handle most of these situations. The days will be full of memorable or meaningful moments. I will witness many sunsets.

Salutation to the Dawn

Listen to the salutation to the dawn, Look to this day for it is life, the very life of life, In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of our existence.

The bliss of growth, the splendor of beauty, For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision,

But today well spent makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. Such is the salutation to the dawn.

~Sanskrit, attributed to Kālidāsa

10 Years Ahead

My life will be different a decade from now. My health and family situation will change. My son will establish a career and start a family. My wife and I may be downsizing and living a quieter life. We may be watching the sunset from a seniors’ apartment. The possibility of death and illness loom large.

Life continues normally for almost everyone day by day. The planet has not changed significantly but has provided humankind with the usual chaos of hurricanes, blizzards, droughts and deluges.

100 Years Ahead

I will definitely be dead and gone. I have left a small legacy based on a few paintings that may still exist. A Google search of my name may turn up a few scientific or artistic references. My DNA may live on through my son’s children. I possibly may be someone’s great great grandfather.

We therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; ….’.

Book of Common Prayer

New people will be living in our house, which will be unrecognizable. The neighbourhood may have become dilapidated or torn down and rebuilt. Everything else I own and value will be dispersed or destroyed.

The memories and experiences of billions of people will be forgotten with each generation. Most photographs, emails, DVD’s and other media will be lost over the century.

Global warming will have flooded the old shoreline, drastically altering Halifax. The population of Canada will have doubled. Society and technology will be unrecognizable.

The earth’s geography will be altered by climate change and human consumption. Politics and war will have drastically changed the prosperity and hierarchy of nations. The colours of sunrises and sunsets will be affected by the change in climate.

1000 Years ahead

There will be numerous terrible wars (possibly nuclear). The survivors will be trying to rebuild civilization. Will we have learned to cooperate or will we continue with conflict and competition? Will intellect or emotion influence the outcome?

History will say the 20th century was the beginning of the end with the invention of nuclear weapons and the start of climate change. Only the most outrageous and most brilliant people of today will be remembered by history, much like Genghis Khan or Aristotle.

Countries like Canada and USA will no longer exist and new political entities will dominate. The climate will be different, extremely hot or cold and massively influenced by human activity. Wilderness will no longer exist and most wild animals will be extinct. Maybe humankind will be exploring other planets and nearby stars systems.

Almost all material products (cars, electronics, crafts, furniture) from 2023 will be trashed or preserved in museums. All the 21st century buildings and infrastructure will have decayed or been replaced. Cities will have been abandoned or underwater or rebuilt on higher ground.

Alternatively humankind may have developed a profound responsibility to be the earth’s custodian; we may have transformed the planet into a place of peace, enlightenment and harmony, a true heaven on earth.

Although the earth remains geographically similar to 2023, humankind will have endured massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, creating spectacular sunsets lasting decades.

10,000 Years into the Future

The earth still has a 24 hour day and the sun and moon move in similar orbits. The climate is much hotter than today. Some regions near the equator are uninhabitable by humans and life has moved to the polar regions. The human genome has been altered so humans look and think differently. People will be more diverse and specialized. Humans from 2023 are considered an ancient branch of the modern humanoids of 12023.

Nothing social or cultural we recognize today will exist. Countries, societies and civilizations will be long lost. Fragments from 2023 may still be washed up on beaches or lost underwater.

100,000 Years in the Future

In geological and evolutionary terms 100,000 years is very short. The cycle of day and night continues. The continents have moved a few kilometers. Species have evolved but not too drastically.

The climate will be different. Volcanoes and earthquakes have shattered the continents. The Yellowstone supervolcano has erupted and the San Andreas Fault has ripped California from the continent. Sea levels have changed.

The ability of humans to build or destroy has multiplied by orders of magnitude over the millenia. Human civilization will either be amazing or extinct. If we survive, we will have learned painful lessons on extinction or revival. Sentient beings of some form will exist to witness the sunrise in 102023.

1,000,000 Years in the Future

Over a million years, evolution changes the living world. Every animal and plant species will have changed. New species will thrive while others have perished. Perhaps insects are ascendent over mammals. Humans may have disappeared from the earth’s ecosystem (moving to another planetary system?). Will the world hark back to the time of dinosaurs where life was brutal, dangerous and deadly?

The sun continues to shine offering beautiful sunrises and sunsets every day for whatever creatures roam the planet. There have been over 365,000,000 sunsets since I went skiing.

10,000,000 Years in the Future

Planet earth will continue to exist with oceans and continents that have moved to different places. New mountain ranges will rise up and other regions will sink beneath the sea. Who knows what animals and plants will prosper in an atmosphere of vastly different gases. Surely new life forms will dominate the planet. Fortunately living organisms continue to evolve and exist. They will inhabit the earth for another 100 million years.

1,000,000,000 Years in the Future

In a billion years the sun may transform into a red giant, dramatically increasing in size. The oceans and atmosphere will boil and burn away leaving only a rocky crust.

This might be the end of life on earth, but there is something comforting about the immensely long cycle of life in which I have played a minor but real part.

3,000,000,000 Years from Now

In a few billion years, the sun expands massively and explodes as a dying star, ending the cycle of sunrises on earth forever. The earth disappears in the supernova. The end has finally come.

The many sides of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Located 10,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Cassiopeia, Cassiopeia A is the remnant of a once massive star that died in a violent supernova explosion 325 years ago. Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Spitzer Space Telescope. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Epilogue

At the edge of All the Ages
A Knight sate on his steed,
His armour red and thin with rust,
His soul from sorrow freed;
And he lifted up his visor
From a face of skin and bone,
And his horse turned head and whinnied
As the twain stood there alone.

No bird above that steep of time
Sang of a livelong quest;
No wind breathed,
Rest:
‘Lone for an end!’ cried Knight to steed,
Loosed an eager rein–
Charged with his challenge into Space:
And quiet did quiet remain.
by Walter De la Mare (1873 – 1956), “The Song of Fini

Resolving Old Habits

Changing How I Live

It’s 2024 and time for new resolutions. What needs to change?

As I work on this post, I am eating breakfast while I check my phone for emails. Music is playing, as I stretch my sore knee and type another sentence. The day is rushing by as my mind jumps from thought to thought. I won’t feel happy until this post is published. This busyness has a familiar pattern.

Business and Busyness

I have worked hard all my life. When I retired from my science career, I became a full-time art student. After my BFA, I began a career in art.

For a decade I immersed myself in the art business. I built a portfolio, developed a niche, and made lots and lots of paintings. I networked, marketed and sold my art. It was (and is) stressfully satisfying. I have always been busy.

Creating Time

Over the decades I prioritized efficiency and speed to create more time for productivity.

I multitasked everything I could. I planned breakfast when I showered, evaluated traffic when I ate and theorized science as I commuted.

I juggled 3 or 4 activities simultaneously. I would read a book, listen to music, look after the baby, and do yoga.

Multitasking was a carrot for saving time and completing my ‘to do’ list.

I rushed through everything I could. No time to waste! Why walk when you could run? I learned to speed read and paint fast. I crammed my day with frenetic activity.

I set goals, some small, some large, some unattainable. My happiness depended on these markers of success. I delayed any gratification to only the highest outcomes. Pain was part of the gain. Happiness depended on success.

Rushing Roulette

While I was highly productive in reaching goals. I had a problem: my mind was always somewhere else and one step ahead. The destination was my top priority and much was lost in this preoccupation.

The future was my focus, and the present always seemed a distraction and not a place to linger. I regret the moments I never savoured. I didn’t stop to hear my son’s laugh or enjoy my dog’s playfulness. I had been gambling the present for some unreachable future. I still am gambling away the present.

If happiness was the destination, the satisfaction was short lived. As quickly as one goal was attained, new ones were set. The train headed for a new destination before I could appreciate where I was. I was always on my way to somewhere else.

Limited

I am riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air go fifteen all-steel coaches
holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and women laughing in the
diners and sleepers shall pass into ashes.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he going and he answers: “Omaha.”
Carl Sandburg

Getting Off the Train

I realize I have been on the express train to Omaha most of my adult life. I don’t want to take that train anymore. I look out the window and see life flashing past as a blur as I wait for Omaha to come into view. Then what?

Something big is missing. Satisfaction or contentment? It’s time I resolve to change how I live.

“… To the mortal man
We work our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway
When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away”

Paul Simon- Slip Sliden Away

Resolving to Change

I have made my happiness and satisfaction depend on future destinations. Getting off the express train doesn’t mean my journey is over. I need to change my concept of living. I no longer need to be so efficient or accomplished. I want to find a slower heartfelt trail- where I can smell the honeysuckle.

I want unstructured time. I want curiosity without regard to commercial sales. I want to paint portraits, carve wood, and make coloured glass bottles. I want to mess around.

I need to change my lifelong habits of rushing and multi-tasking my life.

Can I make the present more important than the future? Is it the journey itself that counts?

I have been telling myself “I will be happy when I get there’.

Maybe I need to say ‘I can be happy while I am getting there.”

I need to find out.

I am being driven forward into an unknown land.
The pass grows steeper and the air colder and sharper.
A wind from my unknown goal stirs the strings of expectation.
Still the question- Shall I ever get there?
There, where life resounds,
A clear pure note
In the silence

Dag Hammarskjold

Young at Heart

“Its not how old you are, its how you are old.”
― Jules Renard

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/224285.Jules_Renard

Age is Only a Number

Several readers reponded to my post “Time Out”. They revealed to me that they feel much younger than their biological age. I agree.

As we get older we often get preoccupied by the health of our physical bodies and lament that we can no longer run long distances or party all night long. We forget about the parts that aren’t aging.

Portrayals Beyond Middle Age

We can also feel old because the culture tells us that old means old. Look at the way older people are portrayed in books and media. Old fictional characters are usually parents or grandparents; they connote wisdom, caution, and prudence. They are usually not the central characters and are incidental to the main story. There are numerous scenes on the travails of aging.

The worst portayals are for the very old. How many stories and tales have we read where the villain is the old crone, the old miser, the hag, the codger? Old people are described as ancient relics, who are dilapitated, feeble, senile, wizened, grumpy, and crotchety.

https://curioushistorian.com/legendary-grannies-hags-in-celtic-myths

https://www.twinkl.ca/illustration/witch-pointing-mobile-arm-fairytale-hansel-gretel-person-old-crone-mps-ks2

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/128423026844891576/

Downhill Slide

Our culture seems to suggest life is a long letdown beyond middle age. Retiree’s are past their prime, put out to pasture, irrelevant and unproductive. Old people are expendable or superfluous in many analyses. Economists seem concerned that the aging population is a huge burden on society and the economy.

Mental Age

Old people may be retired, but they are not irrelevant or out to pasture. They are not crones and codgers!

What’s the lesson here? For myself I don’t see myself as being old. Parts of me still feel like I was 20, 30 or 40 years ago. My personality hasn’t changed too much. I can still be silly, impulsive, adventurous, or witty. I sometimes am a goof or a joker! I proudly say I still have an immaturity that doesn’t seem to go away.

Innate Personality

Probably most of our personality traits were imprinted by our DNA, and were present since birth. There are parts of us we cannot change and probably don’t want to change. Our spirit and soul are built around these fundamental traits. Our spirit is full of life energy. When we feel our true selves, we feel young at heart. I imagine this spark will glow until the very end.

Benefits of Age

Being old can be freedom to be who we really are. Lifelong challenges of parenting and career often meant sacrificing our own needs. Now we have an opportunity to explore other parts of our personality. We can relax. We can do things for the fun of it.

A New Childhood

Children have no standards for playing tag, making mud pies, or drawing with crayons. We can do things badly as long as we enjoy it. Let’s have some fun! Let’s share our humour and provoke creative inspiration. Let’s re-create our childhood enjoyment of playtime.

If we allow it, the lawyer can become a chef, possibly a novice but happy chef. The bricklayer can be a sculptor, the nurse an artist, the executive a musician, the truck driver a cyclist.

Do you see the old or young person inside?

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” ― Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker

When we meet our friends and colleagues, let’s overlook the signs of aging. Beneath the physical exterior shines a wonderful youthful spirit!

Image from1888 German postcard, later adapted by William Ely Hill, who published it in a humor magazine in 1915

Humour

“God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.”

“I feel like my body has gotten out of shape, so I joined a fitness club. I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors. I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But by the time I got my leotards on, the class was already over.”

https://www.scarymommy.com/jokes-seniors

https://www.rd.com/list/old-age-cartoons/

Time Out

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey Mackay

Time Flies

These days I am preoccupied with time. I feel panicked that the days are passing quickly and I am aging. Aging feels like my own private battle.

My perspective on aging changed when I realized that aging applies to everyone. It is the human condition. We change slowly and subtly each day.

Changes become apparent when we meet someone we haven’t seen for a few years. Children transform into young adults. Older friends develop a receding hairline, more wrinkles, or a different body shape.

It’s often a surprise to see photos of celebrities. We remember them when they were famous. We look different when to see them now.

Time Equality

Time marches on for everyone simultaneously. No one gets more time in a day. We are all equal in this regard.

Although I sometimes envy wealthy and powerful people, I realize they still only have 24 hours in a day just like me. They too are aging due to the same human physiology.

Consider Vladimir Putin, or King Charles, or Donald Trump. They have immense power and influence in the world around them. Yet they have the same amount of time as everyone else. During their day they still need to sleep, wash, eat and relax. Their power has little benefit in these daily routines.

They are also bound by the rules that govern health and aging. Their health will suffer if they are physically inactive, eat and drink too much, or feel stressed, They too get old. They can’t stop the passage of time.

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” – C.S. Lewis

Capturing Time

Can time be stopped and saved? We try to capture time with a portrait or photograph. A portrait celebrates a person during one phase of life. Photographs directly capture a moment in time. In those images, time is frozen.

Portrait of a Boy Who is Now a Young Man

Unlike Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray, where the painting ages while the person stays young, the truth is the opposite. Time moves on and so does the person. The portrait soon becomes a memory of the past.

https://www.deviantart.com/pti-spb/art/Dorian-Gray-388065987

Slowing Time Down

We can add a few hours to the day on occasion- when we set clocks back at the end of Daylight Saving time, or when we travel West to another time zone. It doesn’t stop the biological clock however.

Perhaps in some future society we will be able to travel close to the speed of light. For a relativistic traveller time slows. and aging also would slow down. Unfortunately, when the traveller returns home he/ she may be young but everyone else will have aged. Would that be any more satisfying?

Carpe Diem

Let’s give up trying to fool time. Let’s celebrate the time we have. Our time may be limited, but that makes each day more precious and beautiful. Savour each of them as they pass.

“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before.” – Maya Angelou

“Enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to be dead.” – Hans Christian Anderson

https://www.joincake.com/blog/quotes-about-time/

Feast from Famine

Not So Long Ago

When I was a boy in the 1950’s attractive images were a rarity. I was 9 years old when I watched television for the first time. The grainy black and white images on a 17″ screen seemed amazing.

https://clickamericana.com/topics/science-technology/vintage-television-sets-from-the-1950s

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7167/photos/298497

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/cameras/overview/stories

https://filmartgallery.com/collections/gardner-ava

https://creativemarket.com/studio2am/6327490-Halftoner-5-Retro-Halftone-Effects?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PPC_GOOG_SmartShopping_US_All&utm_content=558603118314&utm_term&gclid=CjwKCAjw4ayUBhA4EiwATWyBrl7gX3CwOK1xXkn4K3Ogf2PKjtEnlX1Eg-39tJtNQysnVMO4-VOWiBoCNMwQAvD_BwE#fullscreen

Newspapers showed blurry halftone black and white pictures. Good cameras were expensive and hard to use. The Kodak Brownie camera gave affordable but terrible photos and it took weeks to get the 12 snapshots printed. Many of the photos were too dark, too far away or too blurry.

LIFE was the only magazine where I could find wonderful pictures. The few coffee table books we owned provided my first look at famous works of art.

Going to a movie theatre (like the Palace in Calgary) was a special event. I loved to watch the projected images on the big screen.

Air travel was only for the upper classes so the visiting art galleries was not on our family’s holiday plans.

Being a visually oriented person, I hungered to see beautiful pictures. I could not foresee what the future would bring.

Pages from **Life’s Picture History of Western Man**, Simon and Shuster,1951

In the Candy Store

Compared to the 1950’s , today’s digital world is truly like night and day.

We now live in an ocean of colourful dynamic imagery. Millions of images are available anytime, anywhere on any topic. Our homes are full of beautiful prints, posters and photographs. We have computers, wide screen TV, ebooks, magazines all full of images.

My phone is stores a thousand or more photographs, which can be photoedited, cropped and distributed.

WIth Netflix, Crave, Facebook, Pinterest, Google, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. all kinds of imaginary and fantasy worlds are available to download and watch.

Having instant access to an unlimited quantity of colourful imagery is truly incredible. The ability to easily create high definition, photo-shopped photographs and to publish them to the world is equally astonishing.

It feels like I have gone to heaven! I can explore the world’s greatest art from galleries all over the world. I can look up any art genre and be inspired by humdreds of different artists. I can watch UTube videos and take online courses provided by hundreds of artists.

With the latest in computers graphics and animation software, new art forms are being created.

I saw DUNE https://filmyhotspot.com/dune-movie/ at an IMAX theatre and was overwhelmed by the scope, scenery, plot and the fantasy of it all. It was a wonderful visual experience.

The multi-media presentation “Beyond Van Gogh” came to Halifax https://vangoghhalifax.com/. It was a powerful and moving experience for me. The manner in which Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings were animated, projected onto huge screens and set to music amplified the emotional impact of his masterpieces.

Excess

Like the kid in the candy shop I am getting my fiill of treats. Will this lead to a tummy ache if I indulge too much?

This abundance of imagery may have negative consequences. We may succumb to the law of diminishing returns. The first viewing of an expressionist landscape may be breathtaking, but its value will diminish by repetitive viewing. Seeing the landscape printed on a coffee cup may trivialize it too much.

https://www.stashtea.com/products/van-gogh-starry-night-grande-mug-in-gift-box

I will comment on the negatives in a future post.